Which of the following is true about CML in children?
small percentage of patients diagnosed with CML are children and young adults. CML represents about 3 percent of newly diagnosed childhood leukemias. The treatment of children with CML is not standardized. It often follows guidelines developed for adults, even though there are differences between CML in children and adults in terms of disease presentation and progression. Some studies indicate that children and young adult patients have lower rates of complete cytogenetic and major molecular responses compared with older adults. Children and young adults might have a slightly higher risk of transformation to accelerated and blast phase. Children with CML should be treated by pediatric hematologist-oncologists (doctors who specialize in treating pediatric patients with blood cancer). The following TKI drugs are approved to treat CML in children: Imatinib (Gleevec(r)) Dasatinib (Sprycel(r)) Nilotinib (Tasigna(r)) Since children with CML may receive TKI therapy for much longer than adults and during periods of active growth, follow-up care is very impoant. In addition to testing their pediatric patients' responses to therapy, doctors should also monitor children's Height and weight--Doctors should consider a bone scan and a bone density scan if there is evidence of abnormal growth. Pubey--Doctors should refer patients to an endocrinologist if there is a delay in pubey. Thyroid function Hea--Patients should have an annual echocardiogram. Poor adherence to therapy, paicularly in adolescents and young adults, is an additional concern. With oral TKIs, it is impoant to follow the doctor's directions and keep taking the medication for as long as prescribed. Nonadherence to TKI treatment is known to increase the risk of lower response or possibly treatment failure. Taking into account the potential concerns of lifelong TKI treatment, researchers are studying stopping TKIs after a period of deep molecular response. Treatment-free remission is now considered a goal of treatment for selected patients and is a focus of study in various ongoing clinical trials. Intermittent TKI dosing is another potential method to reduce long-term side effects in pediatric CML patients, but more studies are needed to evaluate this approach. Allogeneic stem cell transplantation is another treatment option. Because there have been no randomized controlled trials comparing stem cell transplantation and imatinib in children due to the small number of pediatric patients, the decision on how to treat CML has been individualized. Stem cell transplantation should be evaluated against the complications associated with lifelong TKI use. Ref Davidson 23rd edition pg 922
Translocation between long arm of chromosome 9 and sho arm of chromosome 22
Protein tyrosine kinase inhibitors are used in treatment
Commonly presents as blast crisis
2nad most common leukemia in children
Haematology