Classification of Patients With Chronic Myeloid Leukemia on Basis of BCR-ABL Transcript Level at 3 Months Fails to Identify Patients With Low Organic Cation Transporter-1 Activity Destined to Have Poor Imatinib Response.

摘要

The recent article by Marin et al indicates that a single measurement of BCR-ABL transcript at 3 months is the most accurate way to identify patients with chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CP-CML) who are likely to respond poorly to imatinib therapy. Although the authors identified relevant prognostic levels of BCR-ABL at 3,6, and 9 months, they found that a BCR-ABL level of greater than 10% at 3 months provided the overall best classifier for patients who were destined to have a poor response to tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy (termed as high-risk patients). The authors argue that the 3-month BCR-ABL level is therefore the only measure that is needed to identify patients who are at risk of experiencing failure from imatinib therapy and who may therefore benefit from a different therapeutic approach.