Natural History Study of Patients With Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the impact of current procedures for diagnosis, management, and follow-up on disease status of patients with newly diagnosed chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).
• Determine the natural history of patients with CML who achieve response to imatinib mesylate.
• Determine the health perceptions, symptoms, insurance issues, and work issues of these patients.
• Determine whether medication compliance and planned dose reduction affect imatinib mesylate effectiveness in these patients.
• Determine the molecular and biologic factors associated with disease progression and good and poor response to imatinib mesylate in these patients.

OUTLINE: This is a longitudinal, prospective, cohort study.

Patients complete quality of life, functional status, medical and treatment history, and medication questionnaires at baseline and then every 6 months for 5 years.

Blood samples are collected at baseline and then every 6 months for 5 years. Specimens may be examined in the future in gene array studies and mutation analyses.