Multivariate analysis of prognostic factors in chronic myelogenous leukemia.

The prognostic importance of patient pretreatment clinical and laboratory features were investigated in a group of 50 patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive benign phase chronic myelogenous leukemia. The overall median survival time was 30 months. The patient characteristic associated with shortened survival was the male sex. Anemia, thrombocytosis or thrombocytopenia tened to have adverse effect on survival. A multivariate regression analysis demonstrated only sex difference to be of prognostic importance. Evaluation of the effect of therapy showed that intensive chemotherapy was not superior to single agent chemotherapy.