Focusing on Quality of Life During Treatment for CML

Health care teams caring for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) undergoing treatment should emphasize the importance of discussing the effect therapy may be having on their activities of daily living, a patient advocate said.

In an interview at the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, Claire Saxton, who is the executive vice president of Insights and Impact at Cancer Support Community, discussed the importance of quality of life while patients with CML undergo treatment.

“When you put things really in the perspective of how is this affecting your everyday life, your treatment team will be much better able to make sure that whatever treatment that you're on, it's the one that is giving you the best quality of life,” she said during an interview with Oncology Nursing News at the conference.

Transcript:

So, in the long term, the treatment journey really is how do we keep you having as few symptoms and side effects and as good a quality of life as possible. And so, being really clear with your treatment team [is important].

My fatigue means that I can't do some of my favorite things.…The fact that I have diarrhea means that I can't take the bus to work anymore.

When you put things really in the perspective of how is this affecting your everyday life, your treatment team will be much better able to make sure that whatever treatment that you're on, it's the one that is giving you the best quality of life.