Definition for Chronic myelogenous leukemia
From Biology Forums Dictionary
Chronic myelogenous (or myeloid) leukemia (CML), also known as chronic granulocytic leukemia (CGL), is a cancer of the white blood cells. It is a form of leukemia characterized by the increased and unregulated growth of predominantly myeloid cells in the bone marrow and the accumulation of these cells in the blood. CML is a clonal bone marrow stem cell disorder in which proliferation of mature granulocytes (neutrophils, eosinophils, and basophils) and their precursors is the main finding. It is a type of myeloproliferative disease associated with a characteristic chromosomal translocation called the Philadelphia chromosome. CML is now largely treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), such as imatinib (Gleevec/Glivec), dasatinib, or nilotinib, which have led to dramatically improved survival rates since their introduction in the last decade.
