Treatment of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia According to Current Guidelines: The Results of the Pilot Prospective Study 'Early Induction Therapy and Monitoring'

Background. Current clinical guidelines on diagnosis and treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) define indications for substitution of first-line tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) at therapy failure during different phases of disease progression. Aim. To assess the efficacy of CML treatment with implementing the protocol of timely monitoring and switching to another TKI. Materials & Methods. Patients were included into pilot prospective study РИТМ during 5 years. Data on 100 CML patients were analyzed. Therapy and monitoring were conducted according to the Federal clinical guidelines on CML diagnosis and therapy, 2013. Results. Median follow-up after initiation of treatment was 46 months (range 12-74). Imatinib mesylate was administered as first-line therapy to 91 (91 %) patients, 9 (9 %) patients received 2nd generation TKI (TKI2). Therapy failure was registered in 31 (31 %) patients; 26 (84 %) of them were switched to TKI2. At the time of analysis 95 (95 %) patients were followed-up. Cumulative incidence of CML-associated mortality was 2 %. By the fifth year of follow-up cumulative probability of complete cytogenetic, major and deep molecular responses was 93 %, 88 % and 66 %, respectively. Conclusion. CML treatment according to current guidelines yields the results comparable with those achieved by first-line TKI2 therapy. This approach reduces CML treatment costs and lowers the risk of TKI2-associated adverse events. Due to a high rate of deep molecular response the proportion of CML patients in remission without treatment can be increased in the future.