Dr Akriti Jain speaks to ecancer about a multicenter analysis by the h jean khoury cure CML consortium.

This large, multi-institutional retrospective study characterises contemporary treatment approaches and outcomes for patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia in blast phase (CML-BP) across the United States.

Dr Jain says that among 283 patients treated between 2010 and 2025, outcomes remained poor overall, with substantial heterogeneity in therapeutic strategies.

Combination therapy with chemotherapy plus a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) was associated with significantly improved survival compared with TKI or chemotherapy alone, and early allogeneic stem cell transplantation conferred a marked survival advantage.

Second-generation TKIs and ponatinib achieved higher response rates than imatinib, with ponatinib providing superior event-free survival.

Myeloid blast phenotype was associated with worse prognosis. These findings highlight the continued unmet need in CML-BP and support the use of intensive combination strategies and timely transplant to improve outcomes.