Mr. Bob Levis, who is currently on the Board of Directors of the CLL Society, was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) while on his executive business assignment in Singapore in 2002. Following several years of treatments through remissions and relapses, Bob’s CLL became more aggressive. Without any other treatment options, he enrolled as one of the early experimental CAR T patients in 2013 at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia with Dr. Carl June. The first CAR T procedure put Mr. Levis’ CLL into complete remission for three and a half years. He had a second CAR T while on ibrutinib, in which remission also lasted about three and a half years. He is now on LOXO-305, which is a drug that is currently undergoing trials, and his CLL is stable.
In addition to being on the Board of Directors of the CLL Society, Mr. Levis is on the Abramson Cancer Center Director’s Leadership Council at Penn Medicine. He is also active with the biopharma industry and university research hospitals on patient advocacy initiatives and new CAR T science business development.
Bob shares his remarkable journey with CLL and gene and cell therapies as well as his important work with the CLL Society on the podcast CLL: A Patient’s Perspective, Listen to it here. Bob is the role model for our motto: Smart Patients Get Smart Care.
