Treating chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML)

Unlike ALL and AML, childhood CML cannot be cured by any type of chemotherapy at present.

Chronic myeloid leukaemia is a form of leukaemia that progresses slowly during its initial phase. This chronic phase can last six years or more before undergoing a transformation to a second ‘accelerated’ stage, which lasts three to nine months.

In the third and final ‘blast’ stage, the disease resembles acute leukaemia and is usually fatal within three to six months.

No form of chemotherapy is currently thought to cure CML although a new drug called imatinib can eliminate easily detectable signs of leukaemia from the blood, prolonging the chronic phase of the disease and delaying transformation to the accelerated stage.

The only treatment that can cure childhood CML is a stem cell transplant using cells from a matched donor.

Read more about stem cell transplants.