News | March 17, 2015 | Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, Hematologic Malignancies, Leukemia & Lymphoma
By Cancer Network Staff
A single-arm, open-label trial in Australia found that selective early switching from imatinib to nilotinib is feasible and effective in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).

News | February 17, 2015 | Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, Hematologic Malignancies, Leukemia & Lymphoma
By Cancer Network Staff

In a paper that shows the benefits of looking at old drugs in new ways, researchers showed that axitinib could be repurposed as a potentially effective treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients who develop resistance to standard tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) through a certain molecular mechanism.

News | April 07, 2015 | Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, Hematologic Malignancies, Leukemia & Lymphoma
By Cancer Network Staff

Interferon alpha 2a molecule.

L Kalmanti, S Saussele, M Lauseker, M C Müller, C T Dietz, L Heinrich, B Hanfstein, U Proetel, A Fabarius, S W Krause, S Rinaldetti, J Dengler, C Falge, E Oppliger-Leibundgut, A Burchert, A Neubauer, L Kanz, F Stegelmann, M Pfreundschuh, K Spiekermann, C Scheid, M Pfirrmann, A Hochhaus, J Hasford, R Hehlmann and for the SAKK and the German CML Study-Group.

N C P Cross1,2, H E White1,2, D Colomer3, H Ehrencrona4, L Foroni5, E Gottardi6, T Lange7, T Lion8, K Machova Polakova9, S Dulucq10, G Martinelli11, E Oppliger Leibundgut12, N Pallisgaard13, G Barbany14, T Sacha15, R Talmaci16, B Izzo17, G Saglio6, F Pane17,18, M C Müller19 and A Hochhaus20

Abstract
Treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with tyrosine kinase inhibitors has advanced to a stage where many patients achieve very low or undetectable levels of disease. Remarkably, some of these patients remain in sustained remission when treatment is withdrawn, suggesting that they may be at least operationally cured of their disease. Accurate definition of deep molecular responses (MRs) is therefore increasingly important for optimal patient management and comparison of independent data sets. We previously published proposals for broad standardized definitions of MR at different levels of sensitivity. Here we present detailed laboratory recommendations, developed as part of the European Treatment and Outcome Study for CML (EUTOS), to enable testing laboratories to score MR in a reproducible manner for CML patients expressing the most common BCR-ABL1 variants.

A small retrospective study of heavily pretreated patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) found bosutinib to be a good option in the fourth-line setting.

News | April 06, 2015 | Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, Hematologic Malignancies, Leukemia & Lymphoma
By Ian Ingram

A small retrospective study of heavily pretreated patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) found bosutinib to be a good option in the fourth-line setting.

A Burchert1, S Saussele2, E Eigendorff3, M C Müller2, K Sohlbach1, S Inselmann1, C Schütz1, S K Metzelder1, J Ziermann3, P Kostrewa1, J Hoffmann1, R Hehlmann2, A Neubauer1 and A Hochhaus3

Abstract
A minority of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients is capable of successfully discontinuing imatinib. Treatment modalities to increase this proportion are currently unknown. Here, we assessed the role of interferon alpha 2a (IFN) on therapy discontinuation in a previously reported cohort of 20 chronic phase CML patients who were treated upfront with IFN alpha plus imatinib followed by IFN monotherapy to maintain cytogenetic or molecular remission (MR) after imatinib discontinuation. After a median follow-up of 7.9 years (range, 5.2–12.2), relapse-free survival was 73% (8/11 patients) and 84% (5/6 patients) for patients who discontinued imatinib in major MR (MMR) and MR4/MR4.5, respectively. Ten patients discontinued IFN after a median of 4.5 years (range, 0.24–9.3). After a median of 2.8 years (range, 0.7–5.1), nine of them remain in ongoing treatment-free remission with MR5 (n=6) and MR4.5 (n=3). The four patients who still administer IFN are in stable MR5, MR4.5, MR4, and MMR, respectively. In conclusion, an IFN/imatinib induction treatment followed by a temporary IFN maintenance therapy may enable a high rate of treatment discontinuation in CML patients in at least MMR when stopping imatinib.