Therapeutische Umschau. Revue thérapeutique
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The chronic myelogenous leukemia [CML] is a clonal disease of hematopoietic stem cells with unknown etiology. The incidence is around 2/100,000/year, the median age at diagnosis about 47 years. The course of CML is characterized by a chronic phase with few symptoms and good therapeutic response of about 4 to 5 years duration and by transition to a prognostically unfavourable blast phase of about 3 months duration. ⋯ In the future, intensive chemotherapy with or without autografting might play an important role in the therapy of chronic-phase CML. Forthcoming trials have to consider both, conventional and new experimental treatment modalities. An example is the treatment strategy of the ongoing randomized study of the German CML Study Group which compares allogenous BMT with the best available drug therapy and, in addition, analyses the influence of intensified drug therapy on survival.