Chronic lymphocytic leukemia. A review of 745 cases and assessment of clinical staging.

Review of 745 cases of chronic lymphocytic leukemia show that clinical staging by either the Rai or Binet method is very valuable in assessment of patients at the time of diagnosis. There is a marked decrease in survival with advancing stage (19.9 years median survival for Rai Stage 0, and 2.5 years and 2.7 years for Rai Stages 3 and 4, respectively). The definition of anemia as Hb less than 11 g/dl as in the Rai staging method appears to give slightly better discrimination among the stages than the Binet staging procedure. Patients with splenomegaly alone (Binet stage 2), however, form a small but distinct group that should be recognized. These is little to be gained by subdividing further according to size of the lymph nodes.