Supportive therapies

People with CLL are more at risk of getting infections. This is because both CLL and the treatments used affect the immune system.

You can usually be treated for infections as an outpatient. But some infections can be life-threatening. If you get one of these, you will need to stay in hospital for treatment. It is important to contact your doctor or specialist nurse straight away for advice if you develop:

• a cough
• a sore throat
• a fever or your temperature goes over 37.5°C (99.5°F)
• any other sign of infection.

Your doctor may prescribe antibiotics, anti-viral drugs or anti-fungal drugs to help prevent or treat any infections during your treatment.

Your doctor may advise you to have vaccinations against illnesses such as flu and coronavirus. If you live with other people, your doctor may suggest they also have these vaccinations and any other regular vaccinations. Your doctors may also recommend 2 specific vaccines when you are first diagnosed with CLL. These are to protect against:

• pneumonia
• a type of infection called streptococcus.

Live vaccines and CLL

There are some types of vaccines that you should avoid. These are called live vaccines. They include flu vaccines that are given as a spray up the nose. If you have young children, they should not have this type of flu vaccine as it may affect you too.

Ask your doctor or specialist nurse for more advice about this before you have any vaccinations. It is important to get advice from your doctor if you are planning any travel abroad.

CLL can sometimes cause the immune system to attack normal, healthy red blood cells or platelets.

If red blood cells are affected, this is called auto-immune haemolytic anaemia (AIHA). If platelets are affected, this is called immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).

Auto-immune haemolytic anaemia (AIHA)

If you have AIHA, the number of red blood cells in the blood can fall very quickly. This can cause:

• breathlessness
• tiredness
• a yellowish tinge to the whites of your eyes
• dark-coloured urine (pee).

If you suddenly become very tired or breathless, contact the hospital straight away. You may need to have a blood test, and possibly treatment.

Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP)

With ITP, the number of platelets in the blood can fall suddenly. This can cause:

• bruising
• areas of tiny, dark, purple-red dots on the shins or arms
• unusual bleeding from the gums
• a nosebleed that takes a long time to stop.

If you have any of these symptoms, contact the hospital straight away for advice.

We want everyone affected by cancer to feel our information is written for them.

We want our information to be as clear as possible. To do this, we try to:

• use plain English
• explain medical words
• use short sentences
• use illustrations to explain text
• structure the information clearly
• make sure important points are clear.

We use gender-inclusive language and talk to our readers as ‘you’ so that everyone feels included. Where clinically necessary we use the terms ‘men’ and ‘women’ or ‘male’ and ‘female’. For example, we do so when talking about parts of the body or mentioning statistics or research about who is affected.

You can read more about how we produce our information here.