Summary
Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative disorder.
characterized by the presence of Philadelphia chromosome and affects a good number of
Africans and African-American population. The aim of this review is to highlight the
aetiophysiology, clinical/laboratory characteristics and treatment options, especially the new
and emerging treatment modalities of CML. The review was sourced mainly from internet
(pubmed). Relevant Oncology journals and textbooks of haematology were also consulted.
There are reported cases of relapse/resistance to imatinib which is the current drug of choice in
CML treatment. Research has reached advanced stage on the use of qlternative drugs (eg
Nilotinib and Desatinib) especially in resistant cases. It is hoped that these new drugs will
become the treatment of choice and first line drugs for the treatment of C;ML. We recommend
that these new drugs should also be made available and free (just like Imatinib) to resourcepoor
African countries like Nigeria.