Jacob Soumerai, MD, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, discusses his study on immunoglobulin G (IgG) testing in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).
Patients who received at least three tests for IgG were less likely to experience severe infections compared with those who didn’t.
“The findings were interesting to us,” Dr. Soumerai began. “In real-world practice, testing for IgG levels is highly variable…in part because we are lacking a single consensus guideline for how to do it.”
Dr. Soumerai also discussed how these results impact the way he approaches patients.
“When I see a patient with CLL or NHL, I screen for low IgG levels at our initial meeting. In the absence of relevant infections, I don’t initiate immunoglobulin replacement therapy even in the presence of low IgG levels. Many patients go on to live without recurrent infections despite hypogammaglobulinemia,” he explained.
However, Dr. Soumerai finds the results useful for patient counseling.
“If a patient knows they’re hypogammaglobulinemic, they’re more inclined to notify me if they’re having infections. [The results] suggest that maybe there’s more awareness and patients are reaching out to their doctors more frequently.”