Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, the type of cancer with which Devils forward Brian Boyle was recently diagnosed, is a rare but highly treatable form of cancer.
Like other forms of leukemia, the disease affects a person's blood cells. In the case of CML, it affects the bone marrow and cells that develop into red blood cells, platelets and some white blood cells.
CML is a slow-growing cancer, and people can live long, normal lives with it, even if it is never eradicated completely.
Here is a full description from the American Cancer Society:
Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), also known as chronic myelogenous leukemia, is a type of cancer that starts in certain blood-forming cells of the bone marrow.