ABSTRACT
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is one of the most common types of leukemia diag nosed in the Western Hemisphere, with 8100 projected new cases in the United States for the year 2000 (1). CLL is a disease of the elderly with a median age at diagnosis of approximately 64. The impact on overall survival in young and elderly patients with CLL is quite substantial. In the patient diagnosed younger than the age of 50, Montserrat and colleagues (2) have demonstrated that the median expected life span is 12.3 years com pared with 31.2 years in the age-matched control group. Several studies have identified elderly patients at high risk for poor survival in treatment studies (3,4). A recent report of the United States SEER database comparing outcome of elderly patients with CLL to age-and sex-matched healthy controls demonstrated that CLL has the greatest impact on survival in the most elderly group of patients (5). Thus, CLL is a significant health problem that has an impact on young and older patients alike.
