Over the past decade, treatment options for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) have advanced significantly. As the treatment landscape continues to evolve, one factor remains central to care: each patient’s experience of living with CLL is different.
Clinical characteristics, treatment objectives, comorbidities, lifestyle considerations and personal preferences can all influence decision making. For healthcare professionals, integrating these factors alongside clinical evidence is essential to supporting individualized, patient-centred care. Yet shared decision making can be challenging in practice, particularly when patients find it difficult to express what matters most to them during consultations.
3 out of 4 people living with CLL prefer an active or shared role in decision making, yet only 1 in 5 feel they have one.1
Shared decision making offers a structured approach to discussing treatment options in the context of each patient’s clinical profile, values, priorities and goals. These conversations may support more informed, individualized treatment decisions by helping align clinical considerations with patient needs and preferences.
In clinical practice, meaningful treatment conversations require an understanding of the patient beyond disease characteristics alone, including individual goals, preferences and day-to-day considerations that may affect treatment choice and adherence.
In partnership with the CLL Advocates Network, No Patient Like Me has been developed as an educational program to support holistic treatment conversations between healthcare professionals and people living with CLL. Through patient stories and practical resources, the program aims to facilitate discussion of individual needs, goals and preferences within clinical consultations.
