risk of infectious complication in patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in the era of BCR inhibitors a retrospective single institution experience

he development of novel therapeutic agents in the treatment of lymphoid malignancies seemed to decrease the rate of complications, including infections, in spite of standard immuno‐chemotherapy regimens.1 Varughese et al2 described serious infections in patients receiving ibrutinib, and other recent studies found that these patients are at risk for serious or opportunistic infections.3-7 The aim of our study was to evaluate incidence and type of infections in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients treated with BCR inhibitors: ibrutinib and idelalisib plus rituximab. We collected the main clinical characteristics of all these patients, who provided written informed consent. The analysis of these was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the center, and the trial was conducted in respect of the Helsinki Declaration, Good Clinical Practice and the applicable national regulations.