Successful Completion of Pregnancy in a Patient with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Without Active Intervention: a Case Report and Review of the Literature

The management of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) during pregnancy is a matter of continued debate. We present a 21-year-old woman in whom CML was diagnosed during early pregnancy. Because the patient was asymptomatic and desired to carry the pregnancy to term while minimizing fetal exposure to medication, she was observed with no therapy for the duration of her pregnancy. The white blood cell count showed a slow downward trend throughout her pregnancy. She delivered a healthy baby and breast fed for a time before initiating therapy for CML. We reviewed the published case reports of women who had a pregnancy occur in the setting of treatment with imatinib. Given the adverse effects of fetal exposure to imatinib as treatment for the mother with CML, close observation might be an option for selected patients who are diagnosed with CML while pregnant and who have minimal clinical manifestations of CML.