National Institutes of Health
- The primary NIH organization for research on Chronic Myeloid Leukemia is the National Cancer Institute
Leukemia is cancer of the white blood cells. White blood cells help your body fight infection. Your blood cells form in your bone marrow. In leukemia, however, the bone marrow produces abnormal white blood cells. These cells crowd out the healthy blood cells, making it hard for blood to do its work. In chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), there are too many of a specific type of white blood cell called a granulocyte.
Sometimes CML does not cause any symptoms at all. If you have symptoms, they may include:
Tests that examine the blood and bone marrow diagnose CML. Treatments include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, stem cell transplants, infusion of donated white blood cells following stem cell transplants, immune therapy, or surgery to remove the spleen.
NIH: National Cancer Institute
References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)