A clinical observation of Chinese chronic myelogenous leukemia patients after discontinuation of tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

ABSTRACT: Whether tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) can be safely discontinued is a key focus of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) at present. We report a clinical observation of TKIs cessation in Chinese CML patients and a probable connection between CML leukemia stem cells (LSCs) and relapse. In all, 22 of 1057 patients consented to participate in this observation. The average time of complete molecular response was 12.73 months after TKI withdrawal. LSCs could be flow cytometrically detected in most of the patients. However, the number of LSCs did not differ between the relapsers and non-relapsers. We evaluated the leukemogenetic ability of the LSCs by transplanting bone marrow into irradiated NOD/SCID mice. The results indicated that part of the bone marrow from the relapsers lead to leukemogen

SUBMITTER: Li Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5295427 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature