Chronic lymphocytic leukemia, called “CLL,” is a type of blood cancer that usually grows very slowly. Blood is made up of different types of cells. These cells are made in the middle of your bones, in a part called the bone marrow. When people have CLL, their bone marrow makes abnormal blood cells. These abnormal blood cells grow out of control, get into the blood, and travel around the body. Sometimes, these cells collect in certain parts of the body.

When the bone marrow makes abnormal blood cells, it does not make enough of the normal blood cells a person’s body needs. This can cause symptoms.

Symptoms of CLL — CLL symptoms when it is in the early stages and people might not know that they have it. Many times, people are diagnosed after having routine blood tests.

When CLL does cause symptoms, the most common ones are:

• Feeling very tired and weak
• Swollen lymph nodes in the neck, under the arm, or in the groin – Lymph nodes are pea-shaped organs that are part of the body’s infection-fighting system.
• Getting sick from infections more easily than normal
• Fevers, drenching sweats at night, and losing weight without trying to

Test for CLL — the doctor or nurse will talk, ask to do an exam, and do blood tests. He or she might also do a bone marrow biopsy. For this test, a doctor takes a very small sample of the bone marrow. Then another doctor will look at the cells under a microscope to see if abnormal (cancer) cells are present.

Treatment for CLL — Doctors can treat CLL in different ways. Sometimes, doctors do not treat CLL right away. Your doctor might not treat your CLL right away if it is slow-growing and not causing any symptoms. But doctor will watch the CLL closely by doing exams and blood tests until treatment is needed.

CLL is usually treated if it is causing symptoms or growing fast. Most patients with CLL are treated with chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is the term doctors use to describe a group of medicines that kill cancer cells. There are many different chemotherapy drugs that are used to treat CLL. Your doctor will work with you to choose the ones that are right for you.

When people have chemotherapy, they can get sick from infections more easily than normal. Because of this, it’s important to wash your hands often and stay away from people who are sick. Let the doctor or nurse know right away if you get a fever.

 After treatment: the doctor will check every so often to see if the cancer comes back. Regular follow-ups include talking with the doctor, exams, and blood tests. Sometimes, the doctor will also do a bone marrow biopsy.

The CLL comes back — If the CLL comes back, the doctor will talk with the affected person about other possible treatments. These can include:

• Chemotherapy – will might get the same chemotherapy medicines that got before, or will might get different ones.
• Bone marrow transplant – This treatment replaces cells in the bone marrow that are killed by chemotherapy or radiation. These “donor” cells come from another person whose blood matches yours.
• Surgery to remove an organ called the spleen
• Treatments to reduce symptoms – For example, your doctor can give you medicines to help reduce the number of infections that you get.