The effect of stomach acid suppressants on the safety and effectiveness of dasatinib in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia

This study aimed to investigate the influence of stomach acid suppressants on dasatinib treatment in patients with chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia.  

This study concluded that these drugs did not influence dasatinib treatment in this patient group.  

Dasatinib (Sprycel) is a type of targeted therapy known as a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI). It is the recommended first-line treatment for chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CP-CML).  

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are a group of drugs whose main action is to reduce stomach acid production. H2-receptor antagonists (H2RAs) also decrease stomach acid production.  

Combining TKIs with stomach acid suppressants is not usually recommended as it reduces the bioavailability of the TKI. Bioavailability is the amount of the drug that enters circulation and has an active effect. However, there is no evidence of clinical effects or side effects caused by this drug interaction.  

This study involved 73 patients with CP-CML. All patients received dasatinib treatment. 16 patients also received PPIs or H2RAs with dasatinib (combination group).  

Major molecular response (MMR) is when the amount of BCR-ABL gene (found in cancer cells) present is at a low level. 100% of the combination group achieved MMR at 12 months compared to 45.1% of the dasatinib alone group.  

Deep molecular response (DMR) is another measure of BCR-ABL gene level and signals disease remission. 66.7% of the combination group achieved DMR at 12 months compared to 18.4% of the dasatinib alone group.  

43.9% of patients from the dasatinib group stopped treatment after 18 months compared to 0% from the combination group. 

This study concluded that combining dasatinib with PPIs or H2RAs helped patients not to stop treatment because of side effects. This lead to increased effectiveness of dasatinib for CP-CML patients.   

This study included a small number of participants. It also used information from medical records. Therefore, some data might have been missing. Further studies are needed.  

If you have concerns about leukemia treatment please discuss this with your doctor.