Stages
Chronic myeloid leukemia is categorized into three stages depending on the clinical characteristics and laboratory findings.
Chronic myeloid leukemia is categorized into three stages depending on the clinical characteristics and laboratory findings. They are -
- Chronic phase Accelerated phase
- Blast crisis phase
As the name indicates the disease may exist for several years with very few signs and symptoms and with marginally increased number of leukemic cells.
CML typically begins with the chronic phase,which has very few symptoms.More symptoms begin to appear as the disease progresses. Over a period of time,more chromosomal abnormalities appear in addition to the Ph chromosome. The patient then moves on to an accelerated phase and ultimately progresses to the blast crisis phase when the leukemic macrophage-granulocyte precursor cells begin to proliferate without differentiation.
Some patients already reach the accelerated or blast crisis stage before they are diagnosed.
