Manifesto

2025 UK CLL Forum Manifesto, by Dr Nicolas Calle-Martinez, UK CLL Forum Chair

Warm welcome to the first version of my manifesto as UK CLL forum chair.

I’m humbled by the task ahead of me, I want to praise Dr Walewska for her accomplishments as salient chair and promise hard work and wholehearted commitment to the Forum to emulate the great work of my predecessors.

We are heading towards exciting times for the UK CLL community, the UK CLL study group will now function under the umbrella of the UK CLL Forum, which will allow a greater involvement of the forum and its executive members in the academic, clinical and translational research. We hope that this new arrangement will continue to drive the already successful scientific contribution of the UK to the worldwide CLL community.

Treatment of CLL has changed radically in the last decade, we have excellent therapies that guarantee prolonged survival to our CLL patients, but there is still work to do. There are still groups with high-risk disease for whom CLL remains a life-threatening condition and who need better treatments for their CLL. Also, with long survival the focus is gradually shifting to patient life quality and survivorship. I would like to bring the Forum closer to patients, more focused on their concerns and become a vehicle for their voice. I would like the CLL patients to play a pivotal role in shaping the next decade of CLL research in the UK.

Focusing on the 3 main charity objectives:

Education

We have several education initiatives which continue to be well attended and successful, we will maintain our 2 main scientific meetings every year, our BSH CLL-focused meeting and our CLL virtual course in collaboration with CLL Support Association.

The vital role of nurse specialists in the CLL patient journey has been widely demonstrated. The CLL forum has proudly developed a strong group of nurse specialists interested in CLL Led by Helen Knight and Lianne Palmer. We will continue to support this initiative and provide training opportunities for Haematology nurse specialists in CLL, hoping to maintain a positive impact on CLL patient care.

CLL policy and guidelines

An updated BCSH CLL guideline is due to come out in 2025, led by my predecessor Dr Walewska, with updates on the treatment of CLL in light of the new drug approvals.

The main goal during my tenure will be provide an update of the guideline for diagnosis and investigation of CLL. We will configure a multidisciplinary writing group that can provide a multidimensional guideline with prominent patient representation and involvement.

We will continue to be the representative of the CLL scientific community in the NICE appraisals for new CLL drugs and combinations.

Communication between CLL stakeholders

We are launching the CLL forum account in LinkedIn, in replacement of our Facebook/meta account, to improve the reach of the CLL forum to the appropriate audience. Continuous activity on X (former twitter) and our website will be key to communicate forum activity and achievements.

Research

I will be including in this manifesto the main achievements and proposals of the UK CLL study group, that will function under the CLL Forum Umbrella.

Conversations are underway for the design of the next large clinical trial(s) for untreated CLL and for relapsed disease, incorporating novel agents and the important concept of measurable residual disease-guided therapy that has been successfully demonstrated with the FLAIR trial results.

We will also continue to work on real world projects, including important work with NHS digital data through the UNCOVER plus project led by Dr Andy Pettit from the University of Liverpool.

Finally, I aspire to have an approachable and inclusive leadership of the forum, I am keen to hear suggestions or new ideas for the development of the forum objectives from anyone within the UK CLL community, door will always be open.