CML - imatinib introduction

Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia is a form of cancer that starts in the blood-forming cells of the bone marrow, or hematological stem cells, and invades the blood. The disease was first recognize in 1845 when it was shown that CML was a blood cell disease characterized by excessive white blood cell accumulation. However, a molecular understanding of the cause of CML was not determined until 1960. Using high-resolution karyotyping/ chromosome banding, it was determined that the disease was caused by a reciprocal translocation between the tips of the long arms of chromosome 9 and 22. It is later determined that this reciprocal translocation event led to the fusion of the c-ABL gene and the BCR gene, creating a chimeric BCR-ABL protein product.