Evaluation and Characterization of Indian Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patients on Imatinib

Abstract

Background: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal malignant disorder of hematopoietic stem cell characterized by the classical chromosomal translocation, Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome in more than 90% of the patients. CML is associated with significantly high granulocyte numbers in the bone marrow and peripheral blood. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India aimed to evaluate the incidence and characteristics of CML patients. We have evaluated the demographic, clinical, and hematological data of 158 consecutive patients who visited the hospital from 2012 to 2014. Results: The diagnosis and stage of CML were determined based on the World Health Organization criteria, followed by the polymerase chain reaction. 158 patients evaluated in this study, consist of males (n = 98, 62%) which was higher than females (n = 60, 38%)( M:F::1.6:1). The mean + SD of male and female was 35.6 + 12.7, mean + SD of males was ( 35.7+ 13.6) and mean + SD of females was ( 35.4+11.3). While 17 (10.7%) patients were below 20 years of age, 94 (59.4%) were between 21–40 years, 40 (25.3%) were between 41–60 years, and 7 (4.4%) were more than 60 years of age. The predominance of younger patients (59.4.%) were belong to the age group of 21-40 years. While the most predominant symptom was fatigue and bone pain, the most common clinical sign was hepato-splenomegaly, followed by remarkable weight loss, and epistaxis. Conclusion: A patient with an increased WBC count, weakness, bone pain, low LAP score and hepatosplenomegaly should clearly be evaluated for CML.