[Chronic myeloid leukemia: multivariant analysis of initial findings regarding its effect on mean life expectancy]

Clinical signs, complete blood counts and bone marrow differential counts at the time of diagnosis were investigated in 75 consecutive patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia in a study of prognostic parameters. All patients were followed until death (62 patients) or for a mean follow-up time of 69 months (13 patients). Clinical signs and hematological values were analyzed by univariate and multivariate statistical methods. The only parameter relevant to mean survival time in multivariate analysis is the percentage of bone marrow myeloblasts at diagnosis. Patients with less than 5% myeloblasts at diagnosis had a mean survival time of 48 months compared with 16 months for those with greater than or equal to 5% (p less than 0.01).