Concordant optimal molecular and cytogenetic responses at both 3 and 6 months predict a higher probability of MR4.5 achievement in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia treated with imatinib

Abstract

To investigate the impact of the combination of early molecular and cytogenetic responses on the achievement of MR4.5, 228 newly diagnosed chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia patients treated with imatinib were categorized into 3-month and 6-month concordant optimal, discordant, concordant warning, and failure groups. Among them, 85.3% at 3 months and 78.1% at 6 months had concordant molecularly and cytogenetically defined responses. At both 3 and 6 months, patients with discordant, concordant warning and failure responses had similar 3-year MR4.5 rates, and all were significantly lower than the rate in patients with concordant optimal responses. Patients with concurrent 3-month and 6-month concordant optimal responses had a significantly higher 3-year MR4.5 rate than those with other responses, and 3-month and 6-month concurrent molecular optimal, but not cytogenetic optimal responses. Therefore, achieving concordant optimal molecular and cytogenetic responses at both 3 and 6 months with imatinib treatment are associated with MR4.5 achievement.

Keywords:

• Chronic myeloid leukemia
• imatinib
• molecular response
• cytogenetic response
• molecular response of 4.5 (MR4.5)

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Prof. Giuseppe Saglio (Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, San Luigi Hospital, University of Turin, Italy) for his critical review of the manuscript. This work was supported by the Nature Science Foundation of China [81370637 and 81570130] and the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Program [Z131100004013026 and Z141100000214011].

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2016.1239260.