Cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation in immunocompromised patients such as those undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and those with HIV infections can cause severe morbidity and mortality despite treatment with appropriate anti-viral agents. The recovery of CMV specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) plays an important role in the reconstitution of CMV specific immunity in immunocompromised patients. Recent studies have reported that CMV reactivation could be successfully treated by adoptive transfer of CMV specific T cell clones from CMV seropositive donors expanded in uitro with CMV infected fibroblasts or lysates of CMV infected cells. Other studies have used immune dominant CMV proteins or peptides to expand CMV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes. This review contains clinical manifestation of CMV disease in immunocompromised patients, recent advances of antiviral therapy for CMV disease, the principle of induction of cellular immune response to CMV and clinical application of CMV immunotherapy.