Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

[Jim AUS]

I have been diagnosed with a type of leukemia known as CLL, or chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Does anyone know of a reputable hematologist in Bangkok?

 

[Sheryl]

 

The issue is not so much a reputable hematologist (plenty of those in BKK) but to find one with experience treating CLL, which is rare in Thais.

 

The following are suggested:

 

https://www.bumrungrad.com/en/doctors/narin-voravud

 

https://www.bumrungrad.com/en/doctors/narongsak-kiatikajornthada

 

https://www.bumrungrad.com/en/doctors/surasit-saleh issarachai

 

Treatment here will be very expensive due to the high cost of the drugs which are all imported. If returning to your home country for initial care is an option, I would advise it. You can then get follow up monitoring in Thailand but avoid the huge drug cost.

[Lorry]

It depends a lot of how early in the course of CLL you have been diagnosed.

In the West, people are  usually diagnosed before they have any symptoms,  at routine examinations. 

In the beginning of CLL, it doesn't require drugs, just watchful waiting. 

This period usually lasts years, often 10 years. 

But you will need the initial tests (some are expensive) and you will need the "watching" of watchful waiting (a visit to the hematologist several times a year).

 

In Thailand,  CLL is very rare, often only discovered when people get symptoms.  It's a different story then.

Treatment in Bangkok Hospital or a similar place,  if money is no object,  will be treatment by relatively inexperienced doctors (because it's so rare),  but access to the latest technology or medication may be easier than in many Western countries (I don't know how it's in Australia).