Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) can occur at any age including in children but is more prevalent between the 5th and 6th decades of life. CML is slightly more common in males than females and has no known predisposing factors.
Most patients with CML are diagnosed in the chronic phase. Patients in the chronic phase present with fatigue, weight loss, unexplained fever, night sweats, and left upper quadrant pain due to an enlarged spleen. A few patients are asymptomatic and the neoplasm is discovered when routine blood counts are abnormal. Progression to accelerated and/or blastic phase is accompanied by worsened performance, worsened anemia, thrombocytopenia, and progressive splenomegaly.
All cells derived from the neoplastic clone including granulocytes, monocytes, erythroid precursors, megakaryocytes, and some lymphoid cells carry the Philadelphia chromosome.
