In a nutshell
This study compared the effectiveness of nilotinib (Tasigna) with high-dose imatinib (Glivec) in patients with unresponsive chronic myeloid leukemia. Researchers concluded that nilotinib may be more effective as a long-term treatment for CML when compared to imatinib.
Some background
Chronic myeloid leukemia is a cancer of the bone marrow which may lead to abnormal immune cells. Drugs can target specific proteins on these cancer cells and destroy them. Imatinib is a commonly used drug in CML, but may be ineffective in some cases. It is important to research and compare other drug treatments such as nilotinib in CML.
Methods & findings
Patients with CML who began to become unresponsive to imatinib after 18-24 months were included in the study. Cohort 1 (28 patients) received nilotinib 800mg per day, cohort 2 (28 patients) received 800mg of imatinib per day and cohort 3 (52 patients) received the standard dose of 400mg of imatinib per day.
Major molecular response (MMR – lower abnormal CML protein in the blood) was measured. There was no significant difference in MMR between the cohorts at 12 months. At 36 months, MMR was 83.1% in cohort 1, significantly higher compared to 57.1% in cohort 3. There were no significant differences found when comparing cohort 1 and 2 and cohort 2 and 3.
The bottom line
The study concluded that switching to nilotinib may be more effective in the treatment of CML unresponsive to the standard dose of imatinib.
The fine print
The dose of treatment on cohort 1 was twice that received by cohort 3 which may explain the difference in response to treatment.
Published By :
Leukemia Research
Date :
Jun 01, 2018
