Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia:

Standardized criteria for diagnosis and response assessment are needed to inter-pret and compare clinical trials and for approval of new therapeutic agents by regulatory agencies. Therefore, a Na-tional Cancer Institute–sponsored Work-ing Group (NCI-WG) on chronic lympho-cytic leukemia (CLL) published guidelines for the design and conduct of clinical trials for patients with CLL in 1988, which were updated in 1996. During the past decade, considerable progress has been achieved in defining new prognostic mark-ers, diagnostic parameters, and treat-ment options. This prompted the Interna-tional Workshop on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (IWCLL) to provide updated recommendations for the management of CLL in clinical trials and general prac-tice. (Blood. 2008;111:5446-5456) © 2008 by The American Society of Hematolog