Interferon alpha 2 maintenance therapy may enable high rates of treatment discontinuation in chronic myeloid leukemia

• Verfasst von: Burchert, Andreas [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Saußele, Susanne [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Müller, Martin Christian [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Hehlmann, Rüdiger [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Interferon alpha 2 maintenance therapy may enable high rates of treatment discontinuation in chronic myeloid leukemia
• Verf.angabe: A. Burchert, S. Saussele, E. Eigendorff, M.C. Müller, K. Sohlbach, S. Inselmann, C. Schütz, S.K. Metzelder, J. Ziermann, P. Kostrewa, J. Hoffmann, R. Hehlmann, A. Neubauer and A. Hochhaus
• E-Jahr: 2015
• Jahr: 25 February 2015
• Umfang: 5 S.
• Fussnoten: Gesehen am 05.02.2018
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: Leukemia
• Ort Quelle: London : Springer Nature, 1997
• Jahr Quelle: 2015
• Band/Heft Quelle: 29(2015), 6, Seite 1331-1335
• ISSN Quelle: 1476-5551
• DOI: doi:10.1038/leu.2015.45
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• K10plus-PPN: 1568073887

Abstract

A minority of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients is capable of successfully discontinuing imatinib. Treatment modalities to increase this proportion are currently unknown. Here, we assessed the role of interferon alpha 2a (IFN) on therapy discontinuation in a previously reported cohort of 20 chronic phase CML patients who were treated upfront with IFN alpha plus imatinib followed by IFN monotherapy to maintain cytogenetic or molecular remission (MR) after imatinib discontinuation. After a median follow-up of 7.9 years (range, 5.2-12.2), relapse-free survival was 73% (8/11 patients) and 84% (5/6 patients) for patients who discontinued imatinib in major MR (MMR) and MR4/MR4.5, respectively. Ten patients discontinued IFN after a median of 4.5 years (range, 0.24-9.3). After a median of 2.8 years (range, 0.7-5.1), nine of them remain in ongoing treatment-free remission with MR5 (n=6) and MR4.5 (n=3). The four patients who still administer IFN are in stable MR5, MR4.5, MR4, and MMR, respectively. In conclusion, an IFN/imatinib induction treatment followed by a temporary IFN maintenance therapy may enable a high rate of treatment discontinuation in CML patients in at least MMR when stopping imatinib.