ABSTRACT

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has become a model in cancer medicine for how advances in understanding of the biology of the disease can be translated into the characterization of targets for therapy and how these same targets can be used effectively as molecular markers in the diagnosis and monitoring of the patient ’ s response to therapy. In the 1990 s, treatment options available for CML patients were hydroxyurea, busulfan, interferon alfa (IFN α ) with or without low-dose cytosine arabinoside, and allogeneic stem cell transplant. Introduction of imatinib mesylate in 1998, revolutionalized treatment of CML. Improvement in treatments necessitates improvement in monitoring of minimal residual disease (MRD) and the past three decades have witnessed significant changes in monitoring of CML patients on therapy.