Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML)
What Is It?
Leukaemia means a cancer of the blood forming system. The blood forming system is found in the bone marrow. The bone marrow is the soft inner part of some of your bones. In most types of leukaemia, abnormal white blood cells are made in the bone marrow. These cells can get into the blood stream and circulate round the body. They do not develop properly and so do not work normally. They do not give you the protection from infection that they should. Because there are too many of these abnormal white blood cells, they stop the bone marrow producing enough healthy blood cells. They can also build up in the lymph nodes and spleen and cause swelling. They may also cause problems in the liver and central nervous system.There are several types of leukaemia. They are divided into two main groups:
- Acute leukaemia
- Chronic leukaemia
Leukaemia is called acute or chronic depending on how fast it develops and
gets worse.
Chronic leukaemia tends to take longer to develop. You may have it for months or
years without having many symptoms. There are two main types of chronic
leukaemia - chronic lymphoblastic leukaemia (CLL) and chronic myeloid leukaemia
(CML). The difference between them is the type of white blood cell that has
become cancerous. In CML, the abnormal cells develop from the myeloid blood stem
cells. So the cancerous white blood cells are myelocytes. These cells are
sometimes called granulocytes. So you may hear this type of leukaemia called
chronic granulocytic leukaemia or CGL.
Symptoms
About 1 in 4 people with chronic leukaemia won't have any symptoms at all.
Their chronic leukaemia may be diagnosed because they have a routine blood test
for something else. In chronic leukaemia symptoms tend to be mild at first and
get worse slowly. Many symptoms are vague. You may feel as if you had the flu.
Common symptoms of chronic myeloid leukaemia:
Abdominal discomfort
Tiredness
Weight loss
Headaches and visual disturbances
Night sweats and fever (but less common to have these at diagnosis)
Bone pain
Persistant painful erection (priapism) can happen, but is rare
Treatment
CML is a disease of remission and relapse. Treatment will depend on the stage, general fitness etc.Web link - click here.