Clinical and prognostic features of Nigerians with chronic myeloid leukemia

Abstract

There were 42 patients (27 males and 15 females, ratio of 1.8:1) with ages ranging from 12-74 (median=38.0) years. Philadelphia chromosome was positive in the five patients (12.0%) that underwent cytogenetic analysis. Thirty-three of the patients (78.6%) presented in treatable chronic phase and the other 9 (21.4%) were seen in advanced stages (7 in accelerated & 2 in blastic phase). The median survival of patients that presented in chronic phase was 31.7 months compared to 0.16 months in patients presenting in advanced stages, the difference was statistically significant (log rank=7.8, p-value=0.005). Significant positive correlation was obtained between spleen size and total white cell count at diagnosis (r=0.36, p=0.02). Univariate regression analysis showed negative relationship between survival and ages of patients at diagnosis, haematocrit value, spleen and liver sizes, and blast count. The relationships were statistically significant for only liver and spleen (b=-0.63, p=0.004 and b=-0.51, p=0.026, respectively). Regression of both the liver and spleen with survival, still confirms the significant negative relationship between hepatomegaly and survival.