American oncologists report the case of a man with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) who, in the absence of cytotoxic chemotherapy, began taking a Chinese herbal extract. Shortly thereafter, he experienced a steady decline of his lymphocytosis and adenopathy, and he remains in remission over 10 years later. The herbal extract inhibited the survival of primary CLL cells under in vitro culture conditions. However, it did not inhibit the activation of Akt or mitogen-activated protein kinase, neither did it inhibit the serine phosphorylation of STAT1. Thus, through an as yet unknown mechanism, this extract appears to exert pro-apoptotic effects in CLL.