Intensive polychemotherapy experience in chronic myeloid leukaemia.

A pilot study, testing two different chemotherapeutic schedules in CML patients, was carried out in order to verify the possibility of Ph1 clone disappearance. Both therapeutic regimens, though able to induce severe marrow aplasia, determined only a reduction of Ph1 positive metaphases in two patients, while in one case no response could be detected. Therefore we believe that chemotherapy alone is probably not sufficient to eradicate the Ph1 malignant clone.