Zuzana Michalovičová, Eva Demečková, Jana Tóthová, Martin Mistrík
Chronic myeloic leukaemia (CML) is a clonally myeloproliferative disorder, which is the result of the neoplastic transformation of haemopoietic stem cell. The main characteristics is the reciprocal translocation between long arms of the chromosomes 9 and 22, t(9;22)(q34;q11), known as Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome. Until recently, the therapy of CML was the palliative cytoreductive chemotherapy (busulfan, hydroxyurea), later interferon alpha therapy with a minimal potential of achieving cytogenetic remission. The only curative therapy was and probably also remains allogeneic stem cell transplantation. The detection of imatinib mesylate (STI 571), a specific inhibitor of bcr/abl tyrosine kinase, dramatically changed management and also prognosis and quality of life of the patients with CML.