medwireNews: Findings from the chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) IV study suggest that patients in the chronic phase who respond to imatinib have a high likelihood of survival at 10 years.
The research, published in Leukemia, compared the survival of patients randomly assigned to receive imatinib 400 mg/day given alone (n=400), with the same imatinib dose used after interferon failure (n=128), or used alongside interferon (n=430) or cytarabine (n=158). A fifth group of patients given a double dose of imatinib was also studied (n=420).
After a median of 9.5 years, the combined 10-year rates of overall survival, progression-free survival, and relative survival were 82%, 80%, and 92%, respectively.
There was no significant difference in survival outcomes of patients given imatinib 400 mg/day and those of any other treatment arm, report Rüdiger Hehlmann, from Medizinische Fakultät Mannheim in Germany, and co-authors.
Indeed, survival was significantly associated with factors including chromosomal aberrations, comorbidity, and smoking habits, but not with treatment received. However, patients who had achieved a molecular response at the 3, 6, and 12-month milestones had significantly better survival than those who did not.
“For responders, monotherapy with [imatinib] 400 mg provides a close to normal life expectancy independent of the time to response,” the researchers conclude.
They add: “Although improvements are also needed for refractory disease, more life-time can currently be gained by carefully addressing non-CML determinants of survival.”
medwireNews is an independent medical news service provided by Springer Healthcare. © 2017 Springer Healthcare part of the Springer Nature group