Consequently, oncologists considered other therapies for CML for their patients with no suitable sibling donors. A slowly progressing cancer, CML affects 4,300 Americans a year. It usually strikes middle-aged or older people, although it also can occur in children. It is a disease in which too many immature white blood cells are made in the bone marrow. Over time, millions of abnormal, useless white blood cells accumulate in the marrow, preventing production of normal blood cells and platelets.
Patients suffer from infections, anemia, hemorrhaging and other complications, leading to death.
The preferred treatment is marrow transplantation, provided the patient is young enough and has a suitably matched sibling to donate his or her marrow. However, only about 30 percent of CML patients have such siblings. Consequently, in the late 1980s the standard treatment for CML patients without a matched sibling was hydroxyurea, a common chemotherapy drug. In addition, researchers found that about 10 percent achieved a stable state of remission after 12 months of the interferon treatment. Following that report, physicians began treating more CML patients who do not have suitable, related donors with the interferon regimen.