[Therapeutic aspects of hairy cell leukemia]

This work considers the new advances in hairy cell leukemia therapy. During the last decades the only useful treatments were splenectomy, or, in case of failure or relapse, various chemotherapeutic approaches. Sometimes leukapheresis, radiotherapy, androgens, allogenic bone marrow transplantation, corticosteroids and lithium salts were used with few good results. Interferon and 2-deoxicoformycin recently introduced for the treatment of HCL have determined a dramatic change in the outlook of this disease, producing a high percentage of complete and partial remission.