402
Views
15
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles: Clinical

A lower dosage of imatinib is sufficient to maintain undetectable disease in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia with long-term low-grade toxicity of the treatment

, , , , , , , , & show all
Pages 370-375 | Received 26 Feb 2015, Accepted 23 May 2015, Published online: 22 Jun 2015
 

Abstract

The information about chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients with a deep molecular response of ≥ 4.5 log reduction (MR4.5) in whom the dose of imatinib (IM) had to be reduced to relieve toxicity is insufficient. In 205 CML patients the dose of IM was reduced in 19 (31.2%) out of 61 patients with MR4.5. The patients (12 pretreated with interferon-alpha) achieved MR4.5 after an average of 27.7 months. The duration of MR4.5 before the reduction of the dose was 16–123 (mean = 56.7) months. After the IM reduction (200 mg daily to 400 mg twice weekly for 15–90 (mean = 48) months) MR4.5 or major molecular response (MMR) was maintained in 14 (73.7%) and 2 (10.5%) patients, respectively. Three patients who lost MMR (15.8%) after the discontinuation of IM regained MR4.5 after the reintroduction of a lower dose. A lower dosage of IM should be tested for the management of side effects in patients with MR4.5 in prospective studies.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Pavel Kurfürst and Simon Gill for editorial help.

This work was supported by grants IGA MZ ČR NT12218-4/2011 and IGA-LF-2015-001 Palacky University. The infrastructural part of this project (Institute of Molecular and Translational Medicine) was funded by the Operational Program Research and Development for Innovations (project CZ.1.05/2.1.00/01.0030).

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article at www.informahealthcare.com/lal

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.