Re: cll or ordinary dermatologist

[Guest guest]

Adrienne,

YES! YES!! YES!!! With a reduced immune system you need a

proactive dermatologist (who uses microscopic vision glasses

on all parts of your body), rather than a reactive one who

waits until lesions are obvious!

Marcia

dx age 57

chlorambucil and prednisone

Taxotere and Cytoxin for breast cancer

FCR ­ had to quit after 3 cycles

doing OK now, but every 6 months I have removals from my

skin, a few of which have had abnormal cells

[Guest guest]

Hi Adrienne,

If you can find a dermatologist who specializes in CLL, that

is definitely the way to go. However, it seems such dual-

specialisation will be rare.

My solution was finding the best dermatologist available.

The criteria were: most open to new information, most

engaged with patients, best reputation in the local medical

community, and most aggressive in early skin cancer

detection.

I found that doctor and set about educating her myself. The

medical literature offers lots of trial and study reports

showing increased vulnerability to skin cancers among

CLL'ers. The reason is deficits in immune system cancer

surveillance and attack because of immune system compromise.

So, I printed the abstracts and a couple of basic overviews

of CLL from the medical literature and patient-oriented

sites (see below), and started providing her the papers. Her

response has been AAA.

She has been very assertive in seeking, evaluating, and

treating suspicious lesions. The box score stands at 2

squamous cell carcinomas, 1 basal cell carcinoma, and an

atypical fibroxanthoma - all caught and biopsied early, and

excised by Mohs surgery. Plus, 2 borderline lesions

biopsied and found benign, and lots of freeze-treated

actinic keratoses. We do a whole body survey every six

months.

Three sources of information relating CLL and skin cancers

that you can print out and pass to your dermatologist:

CLL Topics and CLL Topics Updates.

http://clltopics.org/index.php

http://updates.clltopics.org/

Either site will do. Type " CLL and skin cancer " in the

search box and sort from there. Well written, thoroughly

referenced articles. The " Newly Diagnosed? " section has a

good starting overview of CLL.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=CLL%20and%20skin%20cancer%20frequency

or http://tinyurl.com/3s8opf6

The search terms were " CLL and skin cancer frequency " . If

you delete the word " frequency " , a larger range of articles

will be available.

http://www.skinandallergynews.com/news/medical-dermatology/single-article/eadv-l\

eukemia-patients-predisposed-to-aggressive-melanoma/08f83d5c2f.html

or http://tinyurl.com/3nnwnne

For basic overviews of CLL, this group, the ACOR group, the

cllcanada website, and CLL Topics all contain excellent

introductory summaries of CLL, as well as info on CLL & skin

cancer.

At the risk of imposing on Beth Fillman <bethcat(AT)HAMPTONS.COM>

you might contact her and ask for advice and insight.

Ms. Fillman is an expert patient on the subject.

Regards,

Tim Klug