Chronic myeloid leukaemia in Singapore: a case study of 56 patients

A case study was made on 56 patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia in Singapore. The most common clinical presentations were abdominal discomfort with swelling and hepatosplenomegaly. The mean haemoglobin, white cell count, and platelet count at presentation were 9.23 g/dl, 217.9 X 10(9)/1 and 418 X 10(9)/1 respectively. Twenty-three of the 56 patients had gone into blast transformation at the time of analysis. The median duration of the chronic phase from the time of diagnosis to the time of blast transformation was 23 months. The median duration of survival after blast transformation was 3 months. The median duration of survival for all patients was 23 months. Busulphan remains the drug of choice for the chronic phase of chronic myeloid leukaemia.