Staging of CML patients is carried out according to their:
- Current phase
- Signs and symptoms
- Blood and bone marrow tests results
Putting CML into stages helps to determine the best treatments for the patients and predict their prognosis.
The stages are similar to patientsā phase and defined as:
Chronic phase:
- Leukaemia cells in patientsā bone marrow are greater than 5% of white blood cells.
- In a normal bone marrow, only up to 5% of the cells are immature cells.
Accelerated phase:
- The increased numbers of leukaemia cells in the blood and bone marrow account for 10-30% of white blood cells.
- Blast phase:
- Leukaemia blast cells make up more than 30% of bone marrow and blood cells.
- The disease is similar to AML during this stage. Unless it is treated, death will generally occur.
