Someone diagnosed with any type of leukemia in the early 1960s had about a 14 percent chance of being alive five years later. Today, those chances are vastly greater. 

Chronic myeloid leukemia – CML – is a relatively rare blood cancer that’s diagnosed in about 5,000 Americans every year. It used to be a dire diagnosis with a poor outlook. Not anymore, though.

A patient remembers the day he was diagnosed. Writing on a patient support group forum, he recalls, "I had one of the first oncologists I saw tell me 'you got the cancer I can treat. One pill a day and you carry on. Who's luckier than you?'"