Get the Emotional Support You Need

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[MUSIC PLAYING]
JONATHON B. COHEN
Patients often have a lot of anxiety when they're diagnosed with CLL or when-- at any point during the treatment course because, as we often will discuss at the time of their initial diagnosis, this is not really considered a curable disease. And so it is exceedingly uncommon that I will have a patient that I will treat for CLL and the disease never comes back. More often than not, this is something they'll be dealing with in some form for the rest of their life.

And this can obviously be a huge blow for a patient. And a large part of what I try to do in my own clinic is to help them understand what that means. There are a number of support groups available. Many physicians' offices and practices have social workers or other mental health professionals. And I also recommend those patients that have access to a therapist consider working with one, especially as they are adjusting to this disease. And so while I can't promise a patient that we'll be able to cure them of the disease, I can promise them that we expect them to live a long time, that we expect them to live a good life, an active life, and that we're going to work very hard to limit the toxicity of treatment and to really only offer treatment when we absolutely have to and allow them to live off of therapy as long as possible.