Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common leukemia of adults in western countries. Therapy is indicated in symptomatic and advanced stages and has changed fundamentally since 2010 when rituximab, an anti-CD20 antibody, has been approved for treatment of CLL. Until then therapy had been based on chemotherapy drugs. This study investigates whether survival in CLL patients improved at the population level after the introduction of combined chemoimmunotherapy. Data from the cancer registry North-Rhine Westphalia was used to calculate relative survival (RS) by applying period analyses. Age-standardized 5-year RS increased from 79% in 1998–2002 (75% in 2003–2007) to 81% in the calendar period 2008–2012 and 88% in 2013–2016 for men and continuously from 71% in 1998–2002 to 92% in 2013–2016 for women. In CLL patients aged 15–69 years 5-year RS increased from 83% to 90% for men and from 82% to 94% for women after adding an anti-CD20-antibody to chemotherapy while in the older age group of 70–79-year-old CLL patients an increase by 20 percentage points was observed. These findings show marked improvements in the survival of CLL patients at the population level subsequently to the approval of anti-CD 20 antibodies like rituximab, ofatumumab or obinutuzumab for CLL treatment.

慢性淋巴细胞白血病（CLL）是西方国家最常见的成人白血病。治疗适用于有症状和晚期阶段，自 2010 年抗 CD20 抗体利妥昔单抗被批准用于治疗 CLL 以来发生了根本性变化。在那之前，治疗一直基于化疗药物。本研究调查引入联合化学免疫疗法后 CLL 患者的生存率是否在人群水平上有所改善。来自癌症登记处北莱茵威斯特法伦州的数据用于通过应用周期分析来计算相对存活率 (RS)。男性的年龄标准化 5 年 RS 从 1998-2002 年的 79%（2003-2007 年的 75%）增加到 2008-2012 年日历期间的 81% 和 2013-2016 年的 88%，并从 1998-2016 年的 71% 持续上升2002 年至 2013-2016 年女性比例为 92%。在 15-69 岁的 CLL 患者中，在 70-79 岁的老年组中，在化疗中添加抗 CD20 抗体后，男性的 5 年 RS 从 83% 增加到 90%，女性从 82% 增加到 94%岁 CLL 患者增加了 20 个百分点。这些发现表明，在批准利妥昔单抗、奥法木单抗或奥比妥珠单抗等抗 CD 20 抗体用于 CLL 治疗后，CLL 患者在人群水平上的存活率显着提高。