[Therapeutic application for the aged with CML]

Therapeutic application for elderly CML patients had been restricted to use of alkylating or antimetabolite agents. In order to improve quality of life in the aged with CML interferon-alpha therapy is now first choice for treatment of elderly chronic phase of CML patients under appropriate informed consent. This treatment provided long term survival with cytological and cytogenetic responses even in the aged. In elderly patients attention has to be paid for the occurrence of side effects such as psychological changes. Further studies are on going in special reference to molecularly targeted therapy, i.e. a specific inhibitor of tyrosine kinase, or non-myeloablative stem cell transplantation.