Many of us who live with CML leukemia, and have sought to learn more about it to enhance our ability to fight this disease, have seen the term "K562" in research reports and other literature about CML. A research report might say something such as "the K562 cell line was used in the experiment to demonstrate..." then it proceeds to discuss some aspect of CML research where the K562 cells were used to help prove or disprove a theory. At first this seems like just another obscure term, something that makes understanding the research report more difficult. But it is important to realize that K562 was a real person, an individual who had chronic myeloid leukemia. K562 was a woman, age 53, name unknown except to the few doctors and researchers who originally knew her. She died in the mid-1970's as a result of CML in blast crisis stage, over two decades prior to the development of Gleevec. Before dying she granted an unusual request, namely, that her leukemic stem cells might be harvested and maintained alive in perpetuity for medical research. And so she became the first to donate her leukemic cells to perpetual CML research. Since then, her living cells have been used by every major researcher who has studied CML, and her cells still remain the primary CML research cell line due to their exceptional qualities to provide useful data to researchers, although other cell donors have followed. Her immortalized cells are at any given time in thousands of locations around the world, still alive and reproduced as needed for research labs and universities. Her gift had an enormous impact on those of us who live with CML today, and she is responsible for enabling the development of important advances in treating CML. Indeed, she made possible the discovery and testing of Gleevec and other CML drugs. We do not know K562's name, but those of us who live with CML do know her. She is the one who helped save our lives, who made it possible for the development of Gleevec and other drugs, and who will continue to help in the development of the eventual cure for CML. We may not know her real name, but we know her just the same. Her cells live on in labs around the globe, and her legacy lives on in us. We are extremely grateful to you for your incredible gift, K562.
-Trey
