My father, who is 72, was diagnosed with CML. From what I understand, this is a blood cancer. They are telling him that he can live with this for many years with agressive treatment. He does not want to take medicine. What would happen if he does not want to take any medication at all?
CML is Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. This disease is usually different that an acute leukemia, and it is commonly very responsive to medical therapy. A few cases will progress to a more acute form of leukemia, and have to be treated with more aggressive chemotherapy. For the people with the chronic form of CML, the oral chemotherapy medication, which is taken at home on a regular basis, is very effective; it can keep people in remission for many years.
However, without adequate treatment and follow up, the disease will progress rapidly and the prognosis poor. So I would tell your father that the treatment is tolerated very well, and that he should take the medication.
To learn more about Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, watch this video from VideoMD.com.
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I’m sorry your father has learned of a CML diagnosis. While this disease is treatable today, there are a number of subtleties that we can assist you with. Everyone at the National CML Society is intimately acquainted with the disease, we live with some aspect of it on a daily basis as either a patient or carer.
Feel free to visit our site for the latest information, as well as links to internationally known CML Experts here in the United States.
Best wishes to you and yours,
Greg Stephens
Executive Director
The National CML Society
877-431-2573
http://www.nationalcmlsociety.org
facebook.com/thenationalcmlsociety
Twitter: @ncmls