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Our highly trained specialists are available 24/7 via phone and on weekdays can assist through online chat. We connect patients, caregivers, and family members with essential services and resources at every step of their cancer journey. Ask us how you can get involved and support the fight against cancer. Some of the topics we can assist with include:
For medical questions, we encourage you to review our information with your doctor.
Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML)
If you are being treated for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), your doctor will check your blood counts, examine you, and do other tests like bone marrow biopsies and lab tests of blood and/or bone marrow samples. (These tests are discussed in Tests for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia.)
These check-ups will be at least every 3 months for at least the first year of treatment. They're done to see how well the CML is responding to treatment. If the CML is not responding, you may need to switch to another drug.
Studies have suggested that a fast response (within 3 to 6 months) is linked to better outcomes.
Doctors look for different kinds of responses to treatment.
Hematologic response is based mainly on if the numbers of cells in your blood have returned to normal. The main test used to measure this is a complete blood count (CBC). It's done on a sample of blood taken from your arm.
Complete hematologic response (CHR): This means your white blood cell and platelet counts have returned to normal, there are no immature cells seen in your blood, and your spleen is back to a normal size.
Cytogenetic response is based on the percentage of cells in a sample of your bone marrow that have the Philadelphia chromosome (and therefore are CML cells). This can be determined with either cytogenetics or FISH testing, both of which can find altered (mutated) chromosomes.
Molecular response is based on how much of the BCR-ABL gene (which is found in CML cells) can be detected by the PCR test. This test can be done on either your blood or bone marrow.
You may hear the terms long-term deep molecular response or durable complete molecular response. This is a long-lasting complete molecular response. It's the goal of CML treatment.
The P站视频 medical and editorial content team
Our team is made up of doctors and oncology certified nurses with deep knowledge of cancer care as well as editors and translators with extensive experience in medical writing.
Last Revised: August 16, 2021
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