Incidence of chronic myeloid leukemia and patient survival: results of five French population-based cancer registries 1980-2009

The treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has seen several major advances over the past 30 years, notably with the introduction of interferon followed by Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitors. We analyzed trends in the incidence of CML and patient survival in France. All cases recorded in five population-based registries between 1980 and 2009 were included. European (ESR) and world (WSR) standardized incidence rates as well as relative survival (RS) rates were estimated. We analyzed data for 781 patients (9863/3: 13.6%; 9875/3: 82.2%; 9876/3: 4.2%). ESR was 1.02 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.93-1.11] and WSR was 0.81 [95% CI = 0.72-0.90]. The five RS rates among patients with Philadelphia chromosome positive (Ph+) CML were 43.7% [30.9-61.9] when diagnosed in 1980-1986, 63.8% [56.9-71.5] in 1987-1999 and 88.7% [84.5-93.0] in 2000-2009. The 8-year RS rate of patients with Ph+CML diagnosed in 2000-2009 was 83.3% [77.5-89.4]. Therapeutic innovations have thus led to a significant increase in long-term survival in the general CML patient-population.