Summary

• Malignant clonal disorder of haematopoietic stem cells.
• At presentation, one third of patients may beasymptomatic; if present, symptoms include fever, chills, malaise, weight loss, and night sweats.
• Splenomegaly is the most common physical finding; all patients will have elevated WBC count.
• Presence of Philadelphia chromosome and /or molecular demonstration of the BCR-ABL transcript confirms diagnosis.
• Treatment with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (eg imatinib, dasatinib, or nilotinib), which inhibits the BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase, gives long-term remission without significant adverse events in most patients.