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Survival Rates for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

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Drugs that are highly effective in treating most cases of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) first became available in 2001. There's no accurate information yet on how long patients treated with these drugs may live. All that's known is that most patients who have been treated with these drugs, starting in 2001 (or even before), are still alive.

One large study of CML patients treated with imatinib (Gleevec®) found that about 90% of them were still alive 5 years after starting treatment. Most of these patients had normal white blood cells and chromosome studies after 5 years on the drug.

The American Cancer Society 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: June 19, 2018

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