What is the cause of chronic myeloid leukemia

The occurrence of chronic myeloid leukemia requires us to focus on active treatment because it is a malignant tumor that is common in people over 50 years old and often manifests symptoms such as anemia, repeated infections or bleeding tendencies.

1. Causes

The cause of chronic myeloid leukemia is still unclear, but it is believed that the Philadelphia chromosome is closely related to the disease, with approximately 90 to 95% of patients having the Philadelphia chromosome.

2. High-risk groups

Chronic myeloid leukemia is a relatively rare malignancy, accounting for approximately 0.3% of all cancers and 20% of adult leukemias; in the general population, approximately 1 to 2 people per 100,000 suffer from the disease. Chronic myeloid leukemia can occur in people of any age, but is most common in people over 50 years old, with an average age of onset of 65 years old. It is more common in men than in women.

3. Clinical staging

CML progresses slowly and is divided into three phases: chronic phase, accelerated phase, and blast phase, depending on the number of leukemia cells in the bone marrow and the severity of symptoms. Among them, about 90% of patients are in the chronic stage at diagnosis, and about 3% to 4% of the chronic stage progress to the blast phase each year.

4. Symptoms

Because chronic myeloid leukemia progresses slowly, many patients do not have symptoms, especially in the early stages. As the disease progresses, leukemia destroys the normal hematopoietic function of the bone marrow, infiltrates organs, and causes obvious but non-specific symptoms. Contains:

1. Anemia: manifested as fatigue, dizziness, pale complexion or shortness of breath after activity;

2. Repeated infections that are difficult to cure: mainly due to the lack of normal white blood cells, especially neutrophils;

3. Bleeding tendency: easy bleeding, continuous bleeding, bleeding gums, bloody stools and irregular menstruation, etc., caused by thrombocytopenia;

4. Splenomegaly, unexplained weight loss and night sweats, etc.