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CLL, Spontaneous Regression

Blood Cancers & Disorders | Last Active: Oct 5 7:00pm | Replies (55)

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I just came on this thread, and just wanted to mention that I know of one other person, the husband of a friend of mine, who also was diagnosed years ago with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, (CLL), stage 0. It was discovered when he had an elevated white blood cell count, with predominantly lymphocytes, and the cell markers typical for CLL were found on the cells in his blood and bone marrow. He never received treatment for the disease, but saw an oncologist every three months to monitor for any possible progression of the disease.

My friend told me that approximately 6 months ago, his oncologist told him he had no evidence of the disease any longer, a spontaneous remission, it would seem. My friend told me the oncologist commented that he had never seen that before. I don't know what he may have taken in the way of supplements or whatever that may have affected this result, but I know he and his wife eat healthy and exercise regularly.
So it may be a rare thing to be spontaneously "cured" of CLL, but it would seem it does happen sometimes. I'm happy for your recovery, what a relief that must be!

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Replies to "I just came on this thread, and just wanted to mention that I know of one..."

marybird- In my 25 years of blogging about a spontaneous regression on this site and the Inspire site I have never had anyone report about spontaneous regression. Like your friend's
oncologist, my oncologist has never seen this either. I did read about a study in Italy in the late 1990's in which they studied spontaneous regression for CLL and found it does happen in about 5%. This regression is not considered a cure, because CLL can still be found in the bone marrow, it's simply inactive. He said that is different than a remission, in which a cancer is cured. If a patient doesn't regress there is still much hope, most are middle age or elderly and do not die from CLL but from other aging factors so eating healthy and staying active will be beneficial.
You friends profile is identical to mine. Thank you for sharing!

Thanks for your info MarYbird. Are you on TV cooking show?