Abstract
Sudden blast crisis (SBC) is an extremely rare complication of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), which may arise during the course of the disease both in patients receiving tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy and in those who have discontinued treatment in the context of treatment-free remission (TFR). Owing to its low incidence, detailed information regarding its pathogenesis, clinical course, and prognosis remains limited. We present the case of a 35-year-old patient who developed a sudden myeloid blast crisis 16 months after the diagnosis of CML and initiation of imatinib.
References
Hochhaus A, O'Brien SG, Guilhot F et al. Six-year follow- up of patients receiving imatinib for the first-line treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia. Leukemia. 2009 Jun;23(6):1054-61.
Jabbour E, Kantarjian H, O'Brien S et al. Sudden blastic transformation in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia treated with imatinib mesylate. Blood. 2006 Jan 15;107(2):480-2.
Cullis JO, Marks DI, Schwerer AP et al. Relapse into blast crisis following bone marrow transplantation for chronic phase chronic myeloid leukaemia: a report of five cases. Br J Haematol.1992;81:378-382.
Angelopoulou MK, Asimakopoulos JV, Galani Z et al. Extramedullary sudden blast crisis in chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia during first-line treatment with nilotinib. Blood Cancer J. 2016 Aug 26;6(8).
Kantarjian H, O'Brien S, Cortes J et al. Sudden onset of the blastic phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia: patterns and implications. Cancer. 2003 Jul 1;98(1):81- 5.
Liang Q, Liu Z, Wu Y et al. Sudden Blast Crisis in a Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patient in Treatment-Free Remission: A Case Report and Literature Review. Acta Haematol. 2025;148(4):371-379.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2026 Marina Santas, Maria Fernanda Tosin
