Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Health Center

What happens if my CML relapses? Is there any treatment recommended specifically for these kinds of cases?

• For those patients who have relapsed chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), treatment options may include targeted therapy with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, a donor stem cell transplant, a donor lymphocyte infusion, biologic therapy or participation in a clinical trial of new types or higher doses of targeted therapy with a donor stem cell transplant. To check for US clinical trials that are now accepting patients who have relapsed CML, you may wish to visit the National Cancer Institute's clinical trials webpage.

What types of cells does our bone marrow typically create? What do blood stem cells become?

• Typically, our bone marrow makes blood stem cells, which are immature cells that develop into mature blood cells over time. Blood stem cells may become either a myeloid stem cell or a lymphoid stem cell. From here, a myeloid stem cell may become a red blood cell, platelet or a myeloblast, which then becomes a granulocyte. A lymphoid stem cell becomes a lymphoblast, which can then become either a B lymphocyte, a T lymphocyte or a natural killer cell — all forms of white blood cells. In CML, this cell development balance is disrupted as too many blood stem cells develop into the particular white blood cell grouping called granulocytes. This overproduction of this type of cell takes up the body's space usually reserved for healthy white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. Without the necessary levels of these types of cells, the body is incapable of staying healthy.