BLAST PHASE OF CHRONIC MYELOID LEUKEMIA

Abstract

Chronic myeloid leukemia represents a model disease where identification and druggability of driving molecular mechanisms led to dramatic improvement of treatment outcomes. Nevertheless, a small proportion of patients still experiences a therapy failure followed by disease progression into a blast phase. In the blast phase, the current treatment almost always fails with fatal outcomes. The following review article is focused on the current state of knowledge of the pathobiology of blast phase and its fundamental characteristics, including blockade of cell differentiation, genetic instability, the occurrence of chromosomal aberrations and somatic mutations and their impact on the prognosis of the disease. The article also provides a brief overview of the current treatment management options of blast phase, its challenges and possible perspectives.