Molecular testing of chronic myeloid leukaemia in low resource areas

Abstract

Most cancer cases occur in areas of low resources. The diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of cancers is especially challenging in these locations. Unique partnerships exist between non-profit organisations and pharmaceutical companies to provide free drugs to CML patients throughout the world if the diagnosis can be rigorously and unambiguously established. But there lies the rub: How do you perform molecular diagnostics in areas where even electricity is unreliable? Here we describe the evolution of testing patients from low resource areas, which, when merged with a remarkable effort to bring tyrosine kinase inhibitors to patients across the globe, have led to survival outcomes similar to cases in industrialised countries.