CML Treatment

Overview. Whenever possible, patients diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)
should have their treatment planned by a multidisciplinary team of doctors with expertise in treating cancers of the blood, such as those found at The Lacks Cancer Center. There are a variety of (CML) treatment options available. However, the choice of treatment depends on the phase of the disease, the size of the spleen at diagnosis, the patient’s general health and age. Ultimately, there are six standard forms of treatment for CML:

Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Therapy. This form of drug therapy is often used as initial treatment for certain types of CML in newly diagnosed patients. A specific family of drugs is used to block an enzyme—produced by the Philadelphia chromosome—called tyrosine kinase. Tyrosine kinase causes stem cells to develop into more white blood cells (granulocytes or blasts) than the body needs. Inhibitor drugs may be able to slow down or stop this process.

Chemotherapy. This treatment uses potent drugs to eradicate, shrink, slow the growth of cancer, or prevent it from spreading. Typically, a combination of drugs is administered intravenously (directly into the veins) in a series of treatments over a period of weeks or months, with breaks in between so that the patient’s body can recover.
Chemotherapy with Stem Cell Transplant. Chemotherapy with stem cell transplant is a method of giving chemotherapy and replacing blood-forming cells destroyed by the cancer treatment. The stem cell transplantation process is a complex and lengthy one. Stem cells (immature blood cells) are removed from the blood or bone marrow of the patient or a donor and are frozen and stored. The patient is then treated with high doses of drugs, which destroy both the abnormal and normal blood cells in the bone marrow. After the chemotherapy is completed, the stored stem cells are thawed and given back to the patient through an infusion. These re-infused stem cells grow into (and restore) the body’s blood cells.

Stem cell transplants occur in specialized centers around the state and country. The Lacks Cancer Center partners with those centers to provide this key inpatient therapy at those centers.

Biologic Therapy. Biologic therapy is a treatment that uses the patient’s immune system to fight cancer. Substances made by the body or made in a laboratory are used to boost, re-direct or restore the body’s natural defenses against cancer. This type of cancer treatment is also called biotherapy or immunotherapy.

Donor Lymphocyte Infusion (DLI). DLI is a cancer treatment that may be used after a stem cell transplant. Lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) from the stem cell transplant donor are removed from the donor’s blood and then given to the patient through one or more infusions. The lymphocytes see the patient’s cancer cells as not belonging to the body and attack them.

Surgery. Splenectomy is surgery to remove the spleen.

Seek the most aggressive treatments available from our multidisciplinary team with a referral from your primary care physician or with a self-referral by calling 1-877-LACKS-MI or 616-685-LACK(S).