Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) 2

success rate (20 to 40 percent) is lower than for children who are transplanted in the
chronic phase of their disease.
During the blast phase, white blood cells fail to mature and the immature cells flood
the bloodstream. The blasts may have characteristics of AML (70 percent) or ALL (30
percent). Children in this phase respond poorly to standard chemotherapy for acute
leukemias. Stem cell transplantation in blast crisis has a low cure rate (10 to 20
percent). The medication Gleevec has shown some promise for inducing remissions of
children with blast crisis. However, these remissions are very short. A variety of exper-
imental protocols are being tried to improve the outcomes of patients with a blast
crisis. Children who achieve a complete remission should be considered for stem cell
transplantation with the best available donor.