Recent progress in understanding chronic myelogenous leukemia

Several important issues in CML research are not covered in this brief review such as the structural or molecular basis of the translocation between ABL and BCR, the relationship between CML and ALL with an identical or related BCR/ABL abnormality, the biology of CML stem and progenitor cells and immunologic aspects of CML. These are discussed elsewhere in this volume. The data reviewed indicate considerable progress in understanding the molecular and cell biology of CML. More is known about what causes CML than any human cancer. However, many important unresolved issues are likely to provide a productive direction for future studies.