The myeloproliferative disorders
| Chronic myelogenous leukemia is a clonal disorder of the hematopoietic stem cell associated with marked expansion of progenitor, precursor and mature hematopoietic cells and their premature release into the peripheral blood. Clinically, the disease is characterized by granulocytosis, thrombocytosis, basophilia and splenomegaly and typically evolves from an indolent, chronic phase of variable duration to a rapidly fatal phase of acute leukemia. In 95% of cases the hematopoietic cells contain a reciprocal translocation between the long arms of chromosomes 9 and 22 resulting in two derivative chromosomes, 9q+ and 22q-, the latter referred to as the Philadelphia (Ph1) chromosome. |