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Abstract

described the morphological and immunophenotypic patterns of blastic transformation in Saudi patients with chronic myeloid leukemia CML [1]. He points out that the relatively young age of our patients contrasts with his own observations at the Asir Central Hospital in Abha. There, the mean and median ages of 27 patients he saw over a three year period was approximately 50 years, more consonant with world figures. He suggests that our lower age reflects referral patterns to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH&RC) because of protocol requirements of bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Patients of less than 40 years are usually selected for this procedure, influencing the referring hospitals on whom to refer.