Despite recent therapeutic advances B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) still represents an incurable disease with standard therapy. Early results of autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) suggested a significant proportion of patients remained disease-free for years, raising the possibility of cure. However, recent studies have shown no evidence of a plateau in the disease-free curves indicating incurability of B-CLL with ASCT. Initial results of allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) with myeloablative conditioning were disappointing due to the high transplant-related mortality, but led to long-term remission and possible cure in a significant proportion of relapsing and refractory patients. The availability of reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) has resulted in increased use of allo-SCT and decreased early transplant-related mortality. In this setting the majority of anti-leukemia effect results from the graft-versus-leukemia reaction and not from the chemo- or radiotherapy. It should be point out that it remains too early to determine the long-term results of RIC allo-SCT with regard to morbidity of chronic graftversus- host disease and disease control.

        Key words: B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia, allogeneic, autologous, stem cell transplantation