Progress with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia: A Personal Perspective over Four Decades

Abstract

[Figure: see text] ▪ Abstract  Our understanding and treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) has progressed since 1960 in parallel with work on cancer in general. CML provided the first evidence of a specific genetic change associated with a human cancer (the Philadelphia chromosome) and the clonal nature of these disorders. With improved cytogenetic and molecular techniques over subsequent decades, the specific genetic rearrangements of CML and many other tumors were defined and the complex mechanisms of carcinogenesis gradually unraveled. During this period, improved treatments for CML (chemotherapy, interferon, bone marrow transplantation) were implemented, and therapy targeted to the specific genetic change in the leukemic cells has recently been brought to promising clinical trials. Similar efforts are under way for other human cancers, and although the problem is enormously complex, there is real hope for major improvements in controlling these disorders.