The blast phase of chronic myeloid leukaemia

The blast phase of chronic myelogeneous leukaemia (BP-CML) still remains a difficult entity to understand pathogenetically and to treat. In recent years, advances have been made in our understanding of the molecular biology and the pathogenesis of this disorder. Although three new agents have been introduced with some success for treating this disease, namely imatinib, dasatinib and nilotinib, response durations are limited. For those patients who achieve a remission following the use of one of the aforementioned drugs, bone marrow transplantation is recommended. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.