Figure 1.

Chronic myeloid leukemia clinical phases. (A) Normal hematopoiesis characterized by the existence of hematopoietic stem cells with a controlled self-renewal and multipotency ability, resulting in balanced hematopoiesis between myeloid and lymphoid lineages. (B) In the chronic phase the myeloproliferative differentiation pathway acquires an advantage, and a massive myeloid expansion is produced. (C) Blast crisis is characterized by a maturation arrest in the myeloid or lymphoid lineage. Newly accumulated genetic and epigenetic aberrations appear in leukemic stem cells (LSCs) and blast cells go out from bone marrow to peripheral blood.