[Recent advances in the etiopathology of chronic B-lymphocytic leukemia]

Considerations to multistep development of B-lymphocytic chronic leukaemia are presented under the following aspects: experimental in vitro cultures of bone marrows B lymphocyte precursors, polyclonal nature of proliferating B lymphocytes in the early stage of CLL, especially in the autoimmune status, the role of viruses, the effect of nonrandom chromosome abnormalities and associated alterations in gene functions, clonal evolution during terminal stages of CLL.