[Long-term survival in chronic myeloid leukemia: frequency and fundamental characteristics in a series of 100 patients].
OBJECTIVE
To analyse the frequency and the main clinico-haematologic characteristics of the patients with Ph'-positive chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) with long survival.


METHODS
Of a series of 100 patients with CML diagnosed in the chronic phase and treated in the conventional way at the "Farreras Valentí" School of Haematology between 1969 and 1982, and followed-up for at least 10 years, those surviving more that 8-10 years since the diagnosis were considered eligible for this study. Their clinico-haematological characteristics at diagnosis were compared to those of the remaining patients by means of the Student's t and Mann-Whitney's U tests, plus chi square with the Yates correction. The actuarial survival in the series was assessed according to the Kaplan and Meier method. The Sokal prognostic index was calculated in the longest survivors.


RESULTS
The median survival of the series was 45 months (range: 4-171). Ninety-one patients died, 2 are alive in chronic phase and in 7 others the follow-up has been lost in the chronic phase. Eight patients survived more than 10 years and 14 more than eight years. Of these, six were men and eight women, 10 were under 50 years of age, one-half lacked splenomegaly at diagnosis and only 2 had Ph' chromosome mosaicism. According to the Sokal prognostic index, six of these patients were in the low-risk group, four were of intermediate risk, and four others were in the high-risk group. None of them had aplasia due to busulphan during the follow-up. When comparing the initial features of the patients surviving 8-10 years with those of the remainders, only the presence of a lower percentage of blast-cells (p = 0.03) and a lower number of blasts in peripheral blood (p = 0.01) in the former achieved statistically significant difference.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings confirm the difficulty in identifying the CML patients with expected long survival at diagnosis. High numbers of cases must be analysed in order to attain definite conclusions in this regard.
Escuela de Hematología Farreras Valenti, Hospital Clínic, Universidad de Barcelona.
F
F
Cervantes
F
F
Bosch
M J
MJ
Terol
A
A
Pereira
C
C
Rozman
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001772:Blood Cell Count; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015464:Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D015466:Leukemia, Myeloid, Chronic-Phase / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D015993:Life Tables; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis
Larga supervivencia en la leucemia mieloide crónica: Frecuencia y características fundamentales en una serie de 100 pacientes.