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EHA 2025 | The association between CLL and chronic lung diseases: findings from a retrospective analysis
Tamar Tadmor, MD, Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel, discusses the findings of a retrospective analysis that included data from over 4,500 patients, investigating the prevalence and clinical impact of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and its associated chronic lung diseases. Dr Tadmor highlights that patients with CLL have a high prevalence of chronic lung diseases, including asthma, bronchiectasis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which are associated with a higher risk of pneumonia and hospitalization. This interview took place at the 30th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA) in Milan, Italy.
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Transcript
So in this meeting we present our abstract that was just published in Hematologica this month in June 2025 regarding the association between chronic lymphocytic leukemia and chronic lung disease. So what we were looking at is whether patients with CLL have a higher incidence of chronic lung disease and we looked at the prevalence of asthma, COPD, and bronchiectasis and we looked at how it affects the long course of patients with CLL...
So in this meeting we present our abstract that was just published in Hematologica this month in June 2025 regarding the association between chronic lymphocytic leukemia and chronic lung disease. So what we were looking at is whether patients with CLL have a higher incidence of chronic lung disease and we looked at the prevalence of asthma, COPD, and bronchiectasis and we looked at how it affects the long course of patients with CLL. So we have our data that is based on the HMO data of more than 4,500 patients with CLL and we looked over more than 20 years of follow-up and what we were able to identify is that patients with CLL have a high prevalence of both asthma, bronchiectasis which account for about 5% of our patients and COPD which accounts for about 6.6% of our patients and the fact that they have COPD or bronchiectasis was associated with a higher risk of ever having pneumonia and hospitalization. So next, we looked to see whether the bronchiectasis was diagnosed before the diagnosis of CLL or after the diagnosis of CLL. And we saw that 70% of our patients had the diagnosis of bronchiectasis following the diagnosis of CLL, meaning that during the CLL, probably due to the immune-compromised state, the patient tends to develop lung complications and following that bronchiectasis. Then we looked to see whether preventive measures that we are taking may affect the rate of hospitalization for pneumonia. And we saw that patients who were taking the vaccination of Prevenar had a lower incidence of pneumonia. And also, the patients who were under prophylactic IVIG also had a lower incidence of pneumonia. So I think the conclusion is that we, in a very large cohort of patients, finally demonstrated that our patients tend to develop chronic lung complications, which later on is presented as chronic infections, hospitalizations, and worse outcomes. And we need to take more into consideration how to prevent it.
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