Correlation of marrow iron patterns with disease status of chronic myelogenous leukemia

Greater than 80% of patients in the stable phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) have no detectable stainable iron in the marrow yet have normal serum iron, total iron binding capacity, and serum ferritin values. We studied the pattern of marrow iron in 187 marrow aspirates from 67 patients with Philadelphia chromosome positive CML in the chronic, accelerated and blast crisis stages. Sequential marrow aspirates in 30 patients confirm that the switch from negative iron to positive iron is coincident with the development of the accelerated phase of blast crisis of CML. Our data suggest that the pattern of marrow iron staining in CML is a useful prognostic indicator of the disease evolution.