OBJECTIVES: This study aims to describe clinical and demographic characteristics of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patients receiving therapy on public cancer centers in São Paulo state, Brazil. METHODS: Cross-sectional analysis of São Paulo state CML-related pharmacy claims as reported in the Ambulatory Information System database.  Patients were included if they have at least one claim with CML ICD-10 code during April 2010. Repeated records were excluded using identification code, age, sex, and diagnosis date as compatibility criteria. Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare clinical and demographical variables and cost of treatment among patients receiving each protocol. RESULTS: 1,326 patients were identified as CML patients, 53.32% male with a mean age of 51.08 years (SD=17.07). The mean disease duration was 2.38 years (SD=3.02; range 0-21.27 years) for those patients for whom data was available (n=1,307). The proportion of patients receiving tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) was 85.67% (imatinib=74.06%; dasatinib=8.82%; nilotinib=2.79%). Other reported therapeutic strategies were:  hydroxyurea (7.24%), non specified oral cancer therapy (3.17%), chemotherapy protocols (0.75%), interferon (0.60%), and others (2.56%). Median age was significantly (p<0.05) different among hydroxyurea-treated patients (67 years), others (46 years), and chemotherapy (15 years) as compared to TKI, interferon and non specified oral drugs. Higher median disease duration was observed for nilotinib-treated patients (4.74 years), interferon (2.73), and dasatinib (2.31). The median disease duration of imatinib treated patients was 0.96 years (p<0.05 vs. all comparisons except hydroxyurea). The median cost of treatment ranged from 80 BRL to 6,678 BRL for hydroxyurea and nilotinib (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Among this sample, the most frequent therapeutic approach for CML patients was TKI, particularly imatinib, but second-generation TKIs have also been prescribed for patients with significantly longer disease duration, which is consistent with current guidelines that recommend that they should be prescribed in later lines.