B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia: present status and future directions. French Cooperative Group on CLL.

INCE TURKS’ initial identification of chronic lymphoS cytic leukemia (CLL), Minot and Isaacs” description of its clinical features in 1924, and Dameshek‘? hypothesis in 1967, considerable progress in the understanding of CLL has been achieved, especially during the last two decades. The purpose of the present work is to review the major advances in the biology and clinical research of CLL and to envisage future directions in the next few years. Because at least 95% of patients with CLL in Western countries have B-cell CLL (B-CLL),4 this review will be limited to B-CLL.