Optimizing Treatment for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Chronic myeloid leukemia has fascinated hematologists and others for 150 years. It was probably the first form of leukemia to be recognized as an entity in its own right; and the discoveries in this century — first of the Philadelphia chromosome, and more recently of the BCR-ABL fusion gene in leukemic cells from almost all patients with chronic myeloid leukemia — contributed substantially to our understanding of carcinogenesis in general. In the 19th century the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia, which included solutions of arsenic trioxide and potassium arsenite,1 was ineffective. Radiotherapy, introduced 90 years ago, provided good control of . . .