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Clinical management guidelines on malignant disorders are generally based on data from clinical trials with selected patient cohorts. In Sweden, more than 95% of all patients diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) are reported to the national CML registry, providing unique possibilities to compile population-based information. This report is based on registry data from 2002 to 2010, when a total of 779 patients (425 men, 354 women; median age, 60 years) were diagnosed with CML (93% chronic, 5% accelerated, and 2% blastic phase) corresponding to an annual incidence of 0.9/100 000. In 2002, approximately half of the patients received a tyrosine kinase inhibitor as initial therapy, a proportion that increased to 94% for younger (andlt;70 years) and 79% for older (andgt;80 years) patients during 2007-2009. With a median follow-up of 61 months, the relative survival at 5 years was close to 1.0 for patients younger than 60 years and 0.9 for those aged 60 to 80 years, but only 0.6 for those older than 80 years. At 12 months, 3% had progressed to accelerated or blastic phase. Sokal, but not European Treatment and Outcome Study, high-risk scores were significantly linked to inferior overall and relative survival. Patients living in university vs nonuniversity catchment areas more often received tyrosine kinase inhibitors up front but showed comparable survival., Funding Agencies|Novartis

Biologic and clinical observations suggest that combining imatinib with IFN-alpha may improve treatment outcome in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). We randomized newly diagnosed chronic-phase CML patients with a low or intermediate Sokal risk score and in imatinib-induced complete hematologic remission either to receive a combination of pegylated IFN-alpha 2b (Peg-IFN-alpha 2b) 50 mu g weekly and imatinib 400 mg daily (n = 56) or to receive imatinib 400 mg daily monotherapy (n = 56). The primary endpoint was the major molecular response (MMR) rate at 12 months after randomization. In both arms, 4 patients (7%) discontinued imatinib treatment (1 because of blastic transformation in imatinib arm). In addition, in the combination arm, 34 patients (61%) discontinued Peg-IFN-alpha 2b, most because of toxicity. The MMR rate at 12 months was significantly higher in the imatinib plus Peg-IFN-alpha 2b arm (82%) compared with the imatinib monotherapy arm (54%; intention-to-treat, P = .002). The MMR rate increased with the duration of Peg-IFN-alpha 2b treatment (andlt; 12-week MMR rate 67%, andgt; 12-week MMR rate 91%). Thus, the addition of even relatively short periods of Peg-IFN-alpha 2b to imatinib markedly increased the MMR rate at 12 months of therapy. Lower doses of Peg-IFN-alpha 2b may enhance tolerability while retaining efficacy and could be considered in future protocols with curative intent., Funding Agencies|European LeukemiaNet||Novartis Pharma||Merck & Co (formerly Schering-Plough)||Regional Oncological Center, University of Uppsala||Novartis||BMS

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