Posted on February 20, 2010.
The life expectancy for a 20 year old suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia? How long can a 20 year old male (healthy) have to live if she is diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia and has been chosen not to seek treatment?
Depends on how they are.
"Before the introduction of imatinib, CML is a fatal disease with a median life expectancy of about six to seven years, the only exception being the minority of patients who could benefit from stem cell transplant. In most cases, it is now a chronic disease with a good quality of life and it is expected that at least three of the four patients are alive at ten years and overall survival may be even higher than in this.Prior imatinib, CML is used to grow slowly during the chronic phase of the disease. This phase lasted four to six years on average and then underwent a transformation to a more rapidly increasing. In about two thirds of patients this change was an acceleration phase, which lasted about three to nine months. This then to a final or blast phase. In some patients, the disease process directly from chronic phase to blast phase. The term "advanced stage" is sometimes used to describe both the accelerated phase and blast phase. There are two distinct phases defined by the types of furnaces blast cells present. In most patients, blast cells (immature white cells) are similar to those observed in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), while in about one fourth of patients, blast cells are more similar to those observed in acute lymphoblastic leukemia ( ALL). This latter form of the disease is known as lymphoid blast crisis and tends to have a poorer response to treatment. "
http://www.lrf.org.uk/en/1/infdispatcml. ...
Re: More information:
It is not possible to say exactly without knowing the patient's history and image hematological. However, with treatment, the median survival time is normally about eight months. Without treatment much less. For factors affecting the survival time, see this article:
http://www.bloodjournal.org/cgi/reprint/ ...
In advanced CML, are you referring to the "acceleration phase" or blast phase?
If the latter is somewhat similar to acute leukemia, and survival without treatment is measured in weeks. If the acceleration phase, perhaps more, but would be several months. If chronic phase, perhaps several years, but disease will probably progress to more advanced stages.
Please go see a hematologist-oncologist.
