The goal in treating patients with hairy cell leukemia is to achieve a complete response. The majority of patients who have achieved a complete remission with their initial treatment do not relapse before a year. It would be important to understand more of the specific details regarding your response and subsequent course. It would also be important to understand the circumstances leading to the concern that the leukemia has relapsed.

A significant amount of clinical judgment is required in planning the subsequent therapy for patients who relapse at less than a year. The plan is often guided by understanding the diagnostic markers on the patient’s leukemic cells, the quality of the initial response, the status of the blood counts and the bone marrow findings.

Patients who have initially had an excellent response (in particular a complete remission) can have a very good chance of having another remission. It is important to realize that several options exist that provide hope. While there are different approaches recommended by experts, many would consider an initial remission of less than a year as requiring careful planning before initiating subsequent therapy.

It would be important to have discussions with your physician as there are many considerations that must be taken into account. Considering your age and the possible positive results from treatment, it would be important to discuss the specific details of your case. The names and contact information of many individuals with expertise that may be able to help (Provider Community/Centers of Excellence) are listed on this web site. These comments solely reflect my opinion. Please let us know if we can be more helpful.