Monitoring Treatment and Response

For patients receiving therapy for CML, the magnitude of reduction in tumor burden is a key prognostic indicator. Moreover, many patients treated with a Bcr-Abl inhibitor achieve a complete cytogenetic response (CCR). For that reason, consistent and easily interpretable molecular monitoring results are needed to assess whether a patient with Ph+ CML has achieved or is making progress toward a desired response to CML therapy, and to ensure that a patient’s treatment is optimized over time.^1-3

Current definitions and guidelines are provided in this section, along with a report from a consensus meeting proposing steps toward global standardization of molecular tests for CML.

Link to CML Treatment Goals

References

1. Branford S, Rudzki Z, Harper A, et al. Imatinib produces significantly superior molecular responses compared to interferon alfa plus cytarabine in patients with newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase. Leukemia. 2003;17:2401-2409. [p 2, col 2, last sentence on page]
2. Paschka P, Muller MC, Merx K, et al. Molecular monitoring of response to imatinib (Glivec^®) in CML patients pretreated with interferon alpha. Low levels of residual disease are associated with continuous remission. Leukemia. 2003;17:1687-1694. [p 1688, Table 1]
3. Rosti G, Martinelli G, Bassi S, et al. Molecular response to imatinib in late chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia. Blood. 2004;103:2284-2290. [p 2284 (abstract), col 2, lines 5-6]

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