Leukemia Treatment | Penn Medicine

The best treatment for leukemia depends on several factors. A hematologist can help you determine the best options for you based on:

Age
General health
Type of leukemia
Whether the cancer has spread into your blood or other parts of your body

Leukemia Treatment Options

Penn Medicine has every weapon available to treat leukemia — from traditional cancer therapies to the newest advances. The following treatments may be given alone or in combinations.

Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT)

A bone marrow transplant (BMT) (or hematopoietic stem cell transplant) removes leukemic cells in the bone marrow and replaces them with healthy cells. The healthy cells can come from your own body (called autologous transplant) or from a donor (allogeneic transplant). The replacement cells then produce additional healthy bone marrow.

Before transplantation, you receive high doses of chemotherapy or radiation to destroy unhealthy bone marrow. Then our experts infuse the new cells into your body through a tube in the chest. The process is not painful, and you'll be awake. After BMT, you stay in the hospital for several weeks for monitoring.

Penn Medicine offers options for bloodless transplantation for populations who cannot receive blood products.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is one of the main treatments to fight leukemia. Chemotherapy medications are chemicals that kill leukemia cells. They may be taken as pills or infusions into your veins.

CAR T Cell Therapy

CAR T cell therapy is one of the newest, most advanced ways to treat certain types of leukemia. We take T cells (immune cells) from your blood, then engineer them to fight leukemia. We infuse the engineered cells back into your body.

Penn was a pioneer in CAR T cell therapy and continues to lead the field in research and treatment.

Immunotherapy

Cancer cells make proteins that can help them hide from your body's immune system. So your body may not recognize cancer cells to fight them. Immunotherapy interferes with that process, helping your own immune system kill leukemia cells.

The number of approved immunotherapy drugs is growing rapidly. We offer all the latest leukemia immunotherapies. We also participate in research to find the next generation of leukemia treatments.

Radiation

Radiation therapy (radiotherapy) uses high doses of radiation to damage or kill leukemia cells. Depending on your diagnosis, we may use X-rays or other high-energy beams on a specific area of your body. Or we may deliver whole-body radiation.

Targeted therapy

Targeted molecular therapies are useful in certain types of leukemia. These treatments attack specific parts of cancer cells to stop their growth or kill them. They may work when chemotherapy and other treatments don't.

Certain tests can show whether targeted treatments can help against the type of leukemia you have.

Supportive Care for the Leukemia Treatment Process

Your treatment team will also help you with many other aspects of successful leukemia care. We offer many types of patient and family support services, including:

Financial advocacy
Mental health services
Oncology nutrition consultations
Social work services

Clinical Trials

Penn Medicine is a pioneer in research to find new treatments for blood cancers. Our team is always participating in leukemia clinical trials to discover the next generation of effective leukemia treatments. This work gives our patients access to many of the latest, most promising treatments before they're widely available.

Leukemia Treatment: The Penn Medicine Advantage

If you choose the Penn Medicine Blood Cancer Program for your leukemia treatment, you'll find:

Innovative treatment options: Our options include immunotherapy, CAR T cell therapy, and bloodless transplantation.
Specialized expertise: Leukemia treatment has changed significantly in the past few years. New treatments are now available for very specific subsets of patients. Our physicians have special training and experience exclusively in leukemia and all the subtypes. Our leukemia team is best positioned to choose the appropriate therapy for you.
Help for even the most complex cases: Because we offer the most advanced treatment options, we can help the most complex cancers. Even if treatment elsewhere has not been successful, we might have options for you.
A history of leadership in leukemia treatment: Penn is a longstanding international leader in the treatment of hematological malignancies. We helped develop many of the current treatments and teach others around the world about effective treatment.