Atinib was defined by quantifying BCRABL transcripts to evaluate the residualAtinib was defined by quantifying

Atinib was defined by quantifying BCRABL transcripts to evaluate the residual
Atinib was defined by quantifying BCRABL transcripts to evaluate the residual disease burden in patients who attained a complete cytogenetic response (0 Ph positive chromosome in 20 metaphases) [12]. A > 3 log reduction in BCR-ABL fusion transcript levels (1000 fold reduction; 0.1 BCR-ABL/ BCR ratio according to the international scale (IS)) from the baseline mean, defined as a MMR, is a favorable prognostic factor for the disease at any time during therapy. In term of treatment responses, it has been reported that this BCR-ABL kinase inhibitor produces a complete hematological response in 98 of patients, whereas CCyR occurs by 60-months follow-up in 87 of newly diagnosed patients with CML in CP, and between 40 and 60 in late CP [13-19]. According to the most recent results of the International Randomized Study of Interferon versus STI571 (IRIS) trial, the estimated overall survival for patients still on imatinib was 85 at 8 years, or 93 when only CML-related deaths or deaths prior to stem cell transplant were included. A total of 92 were free of disease progression. The risk of progressing to AP- or BP-CML was 0.9 in year 4 of treatment, 0.5 in year 5, 0 in years 6 and 7, and 0.4 in year 8. Among those who purchase (Z)-4-Hydroxytamoxifen achieved CCyR, only 3 progressed during the 8-year PubMed ID:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26024392 follow-up [20]. Moreover, patients achieving MMR do even better, as no patient who achieved MMR at 18 months had progressed at 5 years [12,16]. Patients who did not obtain a complete hematologic response at 3 months or CCyR at 18 months were at increased risk of relapse [14,16]. Despite this breakthrough in the treatment of CML patients, up to 27 of the patients who achieved CCyR have been shown to subsequently lose their response and consequently fail to derive adequate or lasting clinical benefit because of intolerance and/or resistance [21-24]. The results published by Druker and co-workers demonstrated that patients who had CCyR or in whom leukemic burden of BCR-ABL had fallen by three orders of magnitude (3 logs) or more had a significantly lowerrisk of relapse than did patients without a CCyR [16]. A rise in BCR-ABL transcript levels detected during imatinib therapy for Ph positive CML patients who achieved CCyR is an alarming indicator of suboptimal response and should trigger a subsequent, more stringent, RT-qPCR assessment [25]. Together, these results have prompted researchers to investigate whether it is possible to distinguish CCyR patients at imminent risk of relapse from those likely to derive benefit from imatinib treatment. As a consequence, identification of those candidates with eventual molecular relapse early on would be useful to change the monitoring frequency and enable the use of alternative, more potent, secondgeneration TKI therapies that may be more effective. Molecular monitoring of the BCR-ABL transcript by RT-qPCR in patients with CCyR during treatment is arguably the single most important tool to evaluate the outcome and to assess the risk of impending relapse. Currently, a threshold of 5-fold to 10-fold (0.5 or 1 log) increase in BCR-ABL transcript has been proposed for molecular relapse. Against this background, we aimed to investigate whether serial monitoring of BCR-ABL by RT-qPCR, but not cytogenetic analysis, to measure minimal residual disease (MRD), performed throughout imatinib treatment in CP-CML patients having achieved CCyR and MMR, could be safely used to monitor patients and predict the probability of relapse within a clinic.