(B-019) Prevalence of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in the European Union

Background: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a hematopoietic malignancy characterized by the presence of the BCR-ABL1 fusion gene. The availability of targeted therapy since the early 2000s has led to dramatically improved survival of patients with CML. An accurate estimation of the current prevalence of CML is necessary to help frame health policy decisions in order to allocate appropriate healthcare resources for the treatment and evaluation of long-term patient outcomes.

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of chronic myeloid leukemia in the European Union (EU)

Methods: A comprehensive literature review was performed in Embase and PubMed to identify population-based epidemiology data in the EU published since 2020. Relevant information was also sought from cancer registries and rare disease databases, including Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN), Nordic Cancer Registries (NORDCAN), and European Cancer Information System (ECIS). As GLOBOCAN reports the 5-year prevalence of all leukemias but not of individual leukemia subtypes and does not report complete prevalence, the 5-year prevalence and the complete prevalence of CML in the EU was estimated from GLOBOCAN based on information (proportion of CML among all leukemias and the ratio of the complete prevalence to the 5-year prevalence of CML) in NORDCAN.

Results: The complete prevalence of CML was estimated to be 1.5 and 2.3 per 10,000 in two published studies from Germany and Italy respectively. According to NORDCAN, the complete prevalence of CML in the Nordic countries was 1.3 per 10,000, ranging from 0.9 to 1.5 per 10,000 in the individual Nordic countries, in 2022. ECIS reported the complete prevalence of CML to be 1.4 per 10,000 in the EU, ranging from 0.7 to 2.1 in the countries, in 2020. In GLOBOCAN, the 5-year prevalence of all leukemias was 5.0 per 10,000 in 2022. Applying the proportion of 5-year prevalent cases of CML among the 5-year prevalent cases of all leukemias in NORDCAN to the 5-year prevalence of all leukemias in GLOBOCAN, the 5-year prevalence of CML in the EU was estimated to be 0.7 per 10,000. Next, applying the ratio of the complete prevalence to the 5-year CML prevalence of CML in NORDCAN (1.3/0.5=2.6) to the estimated 5-year prevalence of CML in GLOBOCAN, the complete prevalence of CML in the EU was estimated to be 1.7 per 10,000, ranging from 1.0 to 2.2 per 10,000 across the individual countries in 2022.

Conclusions: Chronic myeloid leukemia remains a rare disease with a complete prevalence ranging from 1.4 to 1.7 per 10,000 in the EU (estimates ranging from 0.7 to 2.3 in the individual EU countries). These data may be valuable in planning healthcare strategies to maintain optimal health outcomes in patients as they live longer with the disease.