Brief Answer:
probably not...

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

welcome to the 'Ask a Doctor' service.

First of all I have to ask you to upload your complete blood count, so that I can have more information about your white blood cells.

What's considered to be normal is what most "normal" people have. There is an approximately 5% of the population that has different counts (higher or lower than "normal"). This 5% are completely normal individuals who experience no problems at all due to their increased or decreased counts.

If your white blood cells are mostly lymphocytes then chronic leukemia can be considered. Otherwise, having a high WBC count for so many years probably means a benign variation from the "normal" pattern.

I'll be glad to comment more, if you provide more information (mostly a scanned copy of your complete blood count).

I hope I've answered your question. Please let me know if you need further assistance.

Kind Regards!

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Brief Answer:
useful

Detailed Answer:
It was useful. You have more polymorphonuclears (PMNs) than usual. Having more PMNs in a single occasion usually means infection. Having high counts of PMNs chronically may mean various things. Leukemia could have been one of them but the duration of this condition (years as you've mentioned) is very much against such a disorder.

If you have more tests I'd like to see as many as you can upload.

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Brief Answer:
any increase may raise suspicion

Detailed Answer:
Let me clarify this: any increase in white blood cells count may raise suspicion for leukemia. High counts are obviously more suspicious than low counts (like yours). There are some things to consider in such cases:
- the peripheral blood smear: abnormal cells in microscopic examination would render more detailed investigation inevitable.
- the natural history of chronic myelogenous leukemia or CML (this is what we're talking about) : 3 years if the median survival of untreated cases of CML (after diagnosis obviously).

Therefore if you're having such counts for many years without any progress (higher counts or other disorders like anemia, high LDH, high platelet counts, etc) then CML is less likely.

I suppose the lab doctor has checked your peripheral blood smear after getting these counts from the automated cell counter. Normal smears are in favor of a benign etiology.

Having a variation in the counts raises the suspicion for secondary causes.

Things to consider in cases like yours:
Let me start with what we've talked about already
- normal variation
- CML (the chances are not high though)

Other causes may include:
- Smoking: if you'd smoked right before the blood was drawn.
- Infections: you should have had symptoms of infection like fever or localized symptoms (sore throat, cough, etc)
- Cushing syndrome or disease: high blood glucose, characteristic changes in appearance and other signs would have been expected
- other secondary causes: this category may include drugs (like corticosteroids), autoimmune disorders, tumors (having a tumor that causes neutrophilia for so many years is almost impossible), other blood disorders (more findings would have been expected as well), etc.

Regarding your second question, it's already been answered. CML usually progress from the chronic to the accelerated phase or to the blast crisis within a few years.

Kind Regards!

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Brief Answer:
perfectly normal

Detailed Answer:
You're welcome. This is a perfectly normal complete blood count. Just make sure that the doctors have checked at least a peripheral blood smear under microscope and you should be fine!

Best Regards!

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