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Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML)
What is chronic myelomonocytic leukemia?
Chronic myelomonocytic (my-eh-lo-mah-no-SIT-ik) leukemia (loo-KEY-me-ah)—CMML—is a disease in which too many immature white blood cells are made in the bone marrow. These immature white blood cells are called "blasts."
What does CMML do to a person's body?
Over time, the blasts crowd out the red blood cells and platelets. People with CMML may develop serious infections or anemia, or they may bleed too easily.
How common is CMML?
CMML is primarily a disease of the elderly. It's a rare disease, affecting only about 3 of every 100,000 people over the age of 60 each year. Males are more likely than females to develop CMML.
What causes CMML?
The cause is unknown. The actions of the bone marrow are complex and controlled by many factors, including the genes. Recent scientific studies have found a genetic change in some people with CMML that results in a combination of 2 individual genes. This new "fusion gene" creates a protein called a kinase (KY-nase) that causes some blood cells to multiply.
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