Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in South Yemen

Objectives: There is no any published chronic myeloid leukemia epidemiology and evaluation of the hematological and molecular response of chronic myeloid leukemia patients. Material and Methods: This is a descriptive study conducted at National Oncology Center-Aden, South Yemen from September 2014-March 2016. Results: 50 patients were studied, 22 of them were males and 28 were females, the age is ranged between 20-71 years old with a mean age 41.9 years. The most common complaint was fatigability 86%, followed by fever and abdominal distension 78%, 76% respectively while in 82% of patients splenomegaly was the prominent sign detected during the examination. Most patients were anemic at diagnosis with a mean hemoglobin 10.2 g/ dl, leukocytosis was observed in 90% of patients ranging from 4.6 × 109 up to 290 × 109 with a mean WBC count about 40.0 × 109 . The dramatic hematological improvement was observed with the achievement of CHR in 84% of patients which considered as an optimal response. Monitoring early molecular response after three months of starting imatinib revealed an achievement of optimal response in 60% of patients (≥ 1 log reduction of standardized baseline value which is 72.2% in our study), suboptimal or warning response is observed in 22%, (<1 log reduction but >standardized baseline value), and failure to response in 18% (6% didn't show any molecular response but still in chronic phase, 8% progress to blast crisis, 4% drug intolerance). Conclusions: 1) Chronic myeloid leukemia found to be more common in patients within 4th-5th decades in our study, with slight female predominance (0.8:1 M:F ratio). 2) Early molecular response is significant and optimal early molecular response was achieved by 60% of patients, 22% showed a suboptimal response while only 18% failed to show any molecular response.