Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative disorder characterized by predominant proliferation of granulocytic cells

This video describes what chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is and discusses the following:

1. How CML occurs and what are its underlying mechanisms
2. Statistics regarding CML
3. Current treatments and their effectiveness

This video was made by Health Science 4DM3 students Khaled Nawar, Peter Tso, Salina Pasit and Ojan Yarkhani.

Copyright McMaster University 2018.

References:

1) Sawyers, C. L. (1999). Chronic myeloid leukemia. New England Journal of Medicine, 340(17), 1330-1340.

2) O'brien, S. G., Guilhot, F., Larson, R. A., Gathmann, I., Baccarani, M., Cervantes, F., ... & Lechner, K. (2003). Imatinib compared with interferon and low-dose cytarabine for newly diagnosed chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia. New England Journal of Medicine, 348(11), 994-1004.

3) Hehlmann, R., Hochhaus, A., & Baccarani, M. (2007). Chronic myeloid leukaemia. The Lancet, 370(9584), 342-350.

4) Druker, B. J., Sawyers, C. L., Kantarjian, H., Resta, D. J., Reese, S. F., Ford, J. M., ... & Talpaz, M. (2001). Activity of a specific inhibitor of the BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase in the blast crisis of chronic myeloid leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia with the Philadelphia chromosome. New England Journal of Medicine, 344(14), 1038-1042.

5) Noens, L., Van Lierde, M. A., De Bock, R., Verhoef, G., Zachée, P., Berneman, Z., ... & De Geest, S. (2009). Prevalence, determinants, and outcomes of nonadherence to imatinib therapy in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia: the ADAGIO study. Blood, 113(22), 5401-5411.

Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) used to have only one treatment for a long term survival: allogeneic bone marrow transplantaion.
With the advent of Tyrosin Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs) that revolutionized the CML treatment, majority of CML patients have a life span close to that of general population.
However, due to some reasons, such as cost, side-effects, some patients who have been on TKIs for many years with good response had to stop the TKIs. Surprisingly, in about 1/2 of those patients who stopped the TKIs, disease never recurred. This is called "Treatment-Free Remission (TFR). How long do the CML patients having TFR have to wait before declaration of CML? Only time will tell.

"48 hours later, I'm in a haematologist's office and they're saying to me, 'You've got leukaemia.'"

Chanelle Thornton was just 20 years old when she was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), a type of leukaemia that usually affects those aged between 60 and 65.

Chanelle initially put her textbook symptoms down to student life. It was only when she saw an optician about a change in her vision that she began to realise something may be wrong.

In this video, Chanelle recounts her road to diagnosis. #SpotLeukaemia

2019 is a special year for us, as it marks our 50th anniversary and the launch of our #LC50 campaign.

We'll be commemorating our 50th year by working harder than ever to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of leukaemia.

To kickstart our campaign, we spoke to Drew Laird, who last year was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). Since his diagnosis, Drew has been improving his life and the lives of other leukaemia patients through his fitness journey, and later in the week we'll be showcasing his fitness videos made especially for blood cancer patients.

In this video, Drew talks more about the symptoms he had before diagnosis.