Chronic lymphocytic leukemia in young adults.

The occurrence of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), B-cell type, is thought to be distinctly uncommon in patients younger than 40 years of age. Previous case reports of CLL in young adults and children were published before the widespread use of immunologic surface markers in the diagnosis of lymphoproliferative disorders. The authors report four patients with B-cell CLL, all diagnosed with the aid of immunologic markers. The patients were 30 years of age or younger at the time of diagnosis. Their subsequent course has been similar to B-cell CLL in the older age group: one is alive without progression of disease 30 months after diagnosis; one has shown progression of the disease but is alive, after chemotherapy, 36 months after diagnosis; while the other two had continued progression of disease and died, one at six and a half years and the other at 14 months, after diagnosis. The occurrence of B-cell CLL in young adults and its potential implications are discussed.