Imatinib for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: A Real-World Perspective

Treatment with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor — imatinib, dasatinib, or nilotinib — is the standard of care for patients with newly diagnosed chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). To assess toxic effects and long-term outcomes of imatinib therapy, investigators evaluated 832 CML patients from 27 centers in 11 countries who achieved complete cytogenetic response (CCyR) within 2 years of starting imatinib (median dose, 400 mg daily).

Median follow-up was 3.8 years (range, 0.5–7.1) from enrollment and 5.8 years (range, 2.9–9.1) from treatment initiation. A total of 9.0% of patients discontinued treatment because of toxicity, most commonly muscle cramps, edema, cutaneous toxicity, cardiovascular symptoms, or diarrhea or other adverse gastro…