First-line treatment of 102 chronic myeloid leukemia patients with imatinib: a long-term single institution analysis

Imatinib mesylate radically changed the natural history of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). The recent availability of alternative tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) renders the clinical management of CML more complex. In this article, we summarize our long-term single institution experience. From 2003 to 2012, 102 patients with newly diagnosed chronic phase CML were referred to our institution and treated with imatinib mesylate as first-line therapy. All patients were followed inside a dedicated CML clinic. At 1 year, 82/95 patients (86.3%) achieved complete cytogenetic response (CCyR) using a treatment performed analysis (TPA); when using an intention to treat analysis, 85/102 patients (83.3%) obtained CCyR. At 3 months, 58 patients (64.4% TPA) obtained a BCR-ABL transcripts level