[Initial treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia--interferon or bone marrow transplantation]

The two major methods of treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) are bone marrow transplantation (BMT) and interferon (IFN) administration. BMT is recommended when patients are young (usually younger than 45 or 50 years old) and have an HLA identical sibling. Otherwise, IFN administration is the treatment of choice. IFN administration results in the eradication or reduction of the Philadelphia chromosome. Such cytogenetic effects have brought about an improvement in the survival of CML patients.