Treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia with bone marrow transplantation

Chronic myelogenous leukemia is curable by bone marrow transplantation (BMT), especially when patients are treated while in the chronic phase. Bone marrow may be procured from histocompatible siblings, matched unrelated donors, or by autologous harvest with cryopreservation. Depletion of donor T cells may decrease the incidence of graft-versus-host disease, but leads to higher rates of relapse and graft failure. The malignant clone may persist or reappear at the molecular or chromosomal level without necessarily leading to clinical relapse after BMT.