Spontaneous Remission in a Patient with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia

Abstract

In chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) the Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome originates from a reciprocal translocation, t(9;22)(q34;q11),1 that generates a chimeric BCR-ABL gene.2 The disease is incurable without bone marrow transplantation. In some cases, intensive chemotherapy3,4 or treatment with interferon alfa can suppress the Ph-positive clone in the bone marrow,5–7 but the detection of residual disease by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in patients with a complete cytogenetic response suggests incomplete eradication of these cells.8 Few cases of Ph-positive CML have been reported in which a long-term remission occurred without treatment.9–11 We describe a patient with Ph-positive CML who . . .