Extremely Long Duration of Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia with Ph1 Negative and Ph1 Positive Bone Marrow Cells

Abstract

A male patient still surviving 17 yr after the diagnosis of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is described. A chromosome analysis of the bone marrow 16 yr after the diagnosis revealed 84% Ph1 negative and 16% Ph1 positive cells, all containing the Y chromosome. The disease was very sensitive to treatment with busulfan but bone marrow hypoplasia was not induced. In some CML patients with such a double cell population, the prognosis may be extraordinarily good, and they run a considerable risk of being overtreated due to a pronounced sensitivity to alkylating drugs. Such rare cases should not serve as arguments for aggressive treatment of CML.