The main forms of treatment for CLL include the following:

Chemotherapy - drugs, taken either orally or intravenously, are used to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy is called a systemic treatment because it enters the bloodstream and travels throughout the body.

Radiation therapy - x-rays or other high-energy rays are used to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors.

Biological therapy - a type of therapy that tries to get the body to fight CLL. It uses substances made by the body or made in a laboratory to boost, direct, or restore the body's natural defences against the disease. Biological therapy is also called biological response modifier (BRM) therapy or immunotherapy.

Surgery - in some cases, if the spleen is severely swollen and causing symptoms, it may be removed in an operation called a splenectomy.

Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) - there are two main types of bone marrow transplants: allogeneic and autologous. An allogeneic transplant uses healthy marrow taken from a donor whose tissue is the same as, or almost the same as, the patient's. Donors are classified as matched related donors or matched unrelated donors (MUD). An autologous transplant uses marrow from the patient, which has been treated with drugs to destroy any cancer cells. The treated marrow is then frozen and stored until the patient is ready for transplantation.

In bone marrow transplantation, all of the bone marrow in the body is destroyed with high doses of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. An exception is the non-myeloablative or mini-transplant (see also: What is a mini-transplant?). Healthy marrow, either from a donor (allogeneic) or from the patient (autologous) is then given to the patient intravenously to replace the marrow that was destroyed. Transplantation of bone marrow involves potentially serious risks, and patients require the care of skilled medical staff and state-of-the-art support services. For this reason, BMT should be performed at established transplant centers wherever possible.

Supportive treatment - includes transfusion of packed red blood cells for anemia, platelet transfusions for bleeding associated with thrombocytopenia, and antibiotics for bacterial infections.