Complete hematologic and cytogenetic responses can be obtained with interferon-α (IFN-α) in 15–25% of the patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). In these patients, reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) can be used to evaluate minimal residual disease. We studied 12 patients who remained Philadelphia-negative for a median period of 21 months on IFN α therapy. Using RT-PCR, the specific transcript was found in all bone marrow (BM) samples. Ten patients still exhibiting a persistent residual clone remained in cytogenetic remission for a median period of 14 months. As we observed a dissociation between ber-abl expression in BM and peripheral blood (PB) cells, and given the known fluctuations of the ber-abl PCR results, we suggest that PB negative results should be confirmed on BM specimens. Alternatively, it remains to be demonstrated whether longitudinal monitoring of residual disease would benefit from quantitative PCR or double fluorescence in situ hybridization.