Elisabetta Abruzzese, Malgorzata Monika Trawinska, Alessio Pio Perrotti, and Paolo De Fabritiis

Abstract
The management of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) during pregnancy has become recently a matter of continuous debate. The introduction of the Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs) in clinical practice has dramatically changed the prognosis of CML patients; in fact, patients diagnosed in chronic phase can reasonably expect many years of excellent disease control and good quality of life, as well as a normal life expectancy, including the necessity to address issues relating to fertility and pregnancy. Physicians are frequently being asked for advice regarding the need for, and/or the appropriateness of, stopping treatment in order to conceive. In this report, we will review the data published in terms of fertility, conception, pregnancy, pregnancy outcome and illness control for TKI treated CML patients, as well as how to manage a planned and/or unplanned pregnancy.

Published in Oncology
News · June 12, 2015

June 11, 2015 – Vienna, Austria – A comparison of different first-line treatment strategies for chronic myeloid leukemia in a network meta-analysis has shown a significant and relevant nilotinib advantage over standard imatinib 400 mg. This result, covering a patient population of 6314 patients, was reported at the 20th Congress of the European Hematology Society, from June 11 – 14, 2015.