Pregnancy complicated with chronic myelogeneous leukemia (CML) successfully treated with imatinib: a case report

Pregnancy and cancer is a complex situation. The coincidence of chronic myelogeneous leukemia (CML) and pregnancy is an uncommon event, in part because CML occurs mostly in older age groups. The management of CML during pregnancy is a difficult problem because of the potential effects of the therapy on the mother and fetus. Imatinib is a relatively new drug in this era and it induces dramatic hematologic and cytogenetic responses in CML but it is not recommended for use during pregnancy or if the patient plans to conceive. In the literature there are very few reports of outcome of pregnancy conceived while on imatinib. In this report, we describe a successful pregnancy and labor under treatment of imatinib in a patient who was diagnosed with CML at the beginning of her pregnancy.