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Despite receiving similar cancer treatment as other patients, African Americans with a common form of leukemia didn’t live as long in a 2013 groundbreaking study on health disparities. But another form of leukemia, Chronic Myelogenous leukemia (CML) is also becoming more familiar in the black community.
Chronic myelogenous (or myeloid or myelocytic) leukemia, also known as chronic granulocytic leukemia (CGL), is a cancer of the white blood cells. It is a form of leukemia characterized by the increased and unregulated growth of predominantly myeloid cells in the bone marrow and the accumulation of these cells in the blood. CML is a clonal bone marrow stem cell disorder in which a proliferation of mature granulocytes (neutrophils, eosinophils and basophils) and their precursors is found. It is a type of myeloproliferative disease associated with a characteristic chromosomal translocation called the Philadelphia chromosome.
Typically, being categorized as chronic indicates that this type of leukemia spreads and grows slowly. However, CML can change from slow progressing into a rapidly growing, acute form of leukemia that can spread to almost any organ in the body.
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source: BlackDoctor.org
