CHRONIC MYELOGENOUS LEUKEMIA INFORMATION
- Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) can be called chronic granulocytic leukemia or chronic
myeloid leukemia. It is a cancer of the bone marrow, the spongy tissues in the bone responsible
for producing blood cells.
- CML is principally an adult disease with a yearly incidence of 1 in 100,000. Men are affected more
often than women.(3:2). The disease is uncommon in children and forms less than 5% of
childhood leukemias.
- CML is a clonal stem cell disorder and results from an acquired genetic defect. CML is not
inherited. There is an injury to a specific DNA, cause unknown, resulting in a defect in a stem cell
which is passed on to daughter blood cells resulting in the uncontrolled proliferation of white
blood cells that build up in the blood and marrow.
- Most patients are diagnosed in the chronic phase and this stage is
therapy and Interferon therapy. Currently, trials are being
conducted of various Gleevec combination therapies and other new and
exciting drugs are also in the pipeline. A bone marrow transplant
carries substantial risks of mortality and morbidity but can be
curative for CML patients. Interferon works well for a subset of CML
patients who achieve complete remission on the drug and can give
long-term survival. Gleevec is a 5-year old drug but very promising in
that it has the potential for keeping CML patients in chronic phase
long-term, evolving CML into a chronic treatable disease like
diabetes.
- Gleevec (imatinib mesylate) is a drug that kills leukemic cells while keeping normal cells in tact. It
is the first molecular tartget drug in cancer. At the four year follow-up of Gleevec therapy in CML
patients, 16% of patients have been shown to relapse in the chronic phase and as much as 91% in
blastic phase. Obviously, Gleevec remissions may be short-lived in advanced phases of CML.
Two new second generation kinase inhibitors have been developed to treat Gleevec resistance
and are giving very promising results in clinical trials. One is Bristol-Myers-Squibb drug, Dasatinib
or BMS-354825 and the other is Novartis' AMN107. The drug therapy option for CML looks hopeful
each year.
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
My name is Anjana and I am a caregiver to my
husband, Roy who was diagnosed with CML in
January, 2002. We live in the beautiful garden city
of Singapore. I derived a lot of support from on-line
chatting and information with other CML patients
and caregivers. In 2003, my friend, Eva, from the
Philippines, a 7-year CML patient and I formed the
Asian CML Support Group. This group has 800
members from all over the world, but mostly from
the USA. If you are a CML patient or caregiver,
please join us and share your CML journey. This
website is my "labor of love" for CML patients and
their caregivers. My site is a lone venture and not
in any way affiliated to any organization other than
the Asian CML Support Group. I do not have
medical qualifications and be sure to check things
out with your treating physician anything you learn
from this website.
husband, Roy who was diagnosed with CML in
January, 2002. We live in the beautiful garden city
of Singapore. I derived a lot of support from on-line
chatting and information with other CML patients
and caregivers. In 2003, my friend, Eva, from the
Philippines, a 7-year CML patient and I formed the
Asian CML Support Group. This group has 800
members from all over the world, but mostly from
the USA. If you are a CML patient or caregiver,
please join us and share your CML journey. This
website is my "labor of love" for CML patients and
their caregivers. My site is a lone venture and not
in any way affiliated to any organization other than
the Asian CML Support Group. I do not have
medical qualifications and be sure to check things
out with your treating physician anything you learn
from this website.
