Long-term survival in chronic myelocytic leukemia after a first primary malignancy

Within the past 10-15 years, major advances in therapy have strongly improved prognosis of patients with chronic myelocytic leukaemia (CML). We estimated trends in 5- and 10-year relative survival of patients developing CML after a previous malignancy in the United States from 1990-1994 to 2000-2004. Period analysis was employed to disclose recent developments with minimum delay. Overall, 5- and 10-year relative survival increased from 17.6% to 37.7% (p<0.0001) and from 7.6% to 23.8% (p<0.0001), respectively. Improvements were particularly strong in younger age groups. Prognosis of CML patients with previous malignancy no longer lags behind prognosis of patients with primary CML.