But even there, he said, the commercial potential is limited: there are only about 6,000 cases of hairy-cell leukemia each year.

They include a wide range of products, from human growth hormone to vaccines, quick pregnancy tests to a life-saving treatment for hairy-cell leukemia.

It was ineffective against the more common cancers and was found to be effective mainly against hairy-cell leukemia. '

Matutes E, Wotherspoon A, Catovsky D: The variant form of hairy-cell leukaemia.

John Moore first visited UCLA Medical Center on October 5, 1976, after learning he had hairy-cell leukemia.

Diagnostic confusion with acute myelocytic leukemia (AML), hairy-cell leukemia, and malignant lymphoma is not uncommon.

It turned out that he had hairy-cell leukemia, a rare cancer that filled his spleen with malignant blood cells until it bulged like an overfilled inner tube.

Hoffman MA, Janson D, Rose E, et al.: Treatment of hairy-cell leukemia with cladribine: response, toxicity, and long-term follow-up.

Mr. Walton had long struggled against two types of cancer, hairy-cell leukemia, which weakens the immune system by attacking white blood cells, and a bone-marrow cancer called multiple myeloma.

Piro LD, Carrera CJ, Carson DA, et al.: Lasting remissions in hairy-cell leukemia induced by a single infusion of 2-chlorodeoxyadenosine.

The F.D.A. gave Hoffmann-LaRoche of Nutley approval to market a biological entity to fight hairy-cell leukemia, a powder drug that helps doctors diagnose bronchial problems and a capsule for psoriasis treatment.

Scripps, which employs 190 principal investigators, 390 postdoctoral researchers and 500 technicians, counts among its major accomplishments in the past few years the discovery of a treatment for hairy-cell leukemia and the purification of Factor 8, which is used in the treatment of hemophilia.

Since then, Johnson & Johnson has poured in at least $125 million, and Dr. Lerner said only one marketable product had been developed: this month the company got approval from the Food and Drug Administration for a drug to treat a form of cancer, hairy-cell leukemia.