Prof. Grzegorz W. Basak: Multidisciplinary care of hematology patients seems to me to be crucial

What progress has been made in recent years in the treatment of hematologic diseases in general, but also with regard to chronic lymphocytic leukemia?

In recent years, great scientific progress has taken place. A number of diagnostic methods are available. Our knowledge has expanded regarding prognostic factors or molecular tests. The availability of these tests has also increased significantly, and the number of drugs that have been registered for hematological indications in recent years and reimbursed in Poland has also increased. We practically have the tools to treat patients at a world-class level. Progress in hematology is rapid, and as a result, the chase for the "bunny" continues. But this is to the benefit of patients, for the reason that we are able to offer them more and more. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia has essentially become a separate specialty of medicine, due to the variety of lines of therapy available for its various scenarios. It is a classic example of therapy based on prognostic, genetic, or now personalized factors. It is a disease in which we are already able to significantly prolong a patient's life, and allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation procedures have become virtually unwarranted. We now perform them very rarely.

What are the main challenges now when it comes to hematology?

There are still a number of problems, as in life, and this is, of course, the result of our efficiency. Since we manage to prolong the survival of thousands of patients, the number of patients with hematological conditions under hematological care has also increased logarithmically. In contrast, the number of hematology specialists and personnel involved in this care has not progressed so rapidly. It is very important to enable hematologists to work as efficiently as possible by providing support staff in the first place. A hematologist can give a lot of himself, but he needs to be de-bureaucratized (such activities can be performed by other people). Going back to the merits - there is a great need to optimize the supportive care of patients who are treated for hematological diseases. They suffer from multi-disease and are usually elderly, suffer from many complications, including our therapy. All these problems need to be properly taken care of, not only in the hematology departments, but also in the general specialty departments, where it is necessary to promote, on the one hand, knowledge about the peculiarities of treating hematology patients, and also to present some kind of incentives for other specialists to also take care of hematology patients. One of the important issues still to be resolved, in my opinion, is palliative, hospice care. The hematologist, as a specialized person, has the knowledge and a number of tools to treat patients, but he no longer always has this opportunity. The task for the future is also to increase access to palliative wards, hospices that provide follow-up care, such as blood product transfusion, which today, in my opinion, is limping along to some extent. This improvement would make more use of the resources of our wards and clinics. Besides, the introduction of a coordinated care program of a network of hematooncology centers seems a very beneficial solution. For me, particularly attractive is the solution of introducing a patient coordinator, a person who will "by the hand" guide the patient and handle a number of issues. Multidisciplinary care of such a patient seems to me to be crucial here.