Abstract

TARGET THERAPY AND MONITORING OF CHRONIC MYELOID LEUKEMIA

Prof. Dr. Gamal Abdul Hamid*

Abstract

Treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with target therapy approved 5 different tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs; imatinib, nilotinib, dasatinib, bosutinib and ponatinib) according to the disease risk, disease stage, comorbidities and BCR-ABL genotype. Imatinib was the most common drug of choice for treatment of newly diagnosed CML patients in the last 15 years. In the last 3 years nilotinib, dasatinib and bosutinib, three newer drugs with higher potency against BCRABL and against imatinib-resistant BCR-ABL mutations. Ponatinib is the newest TKI indicated for chronic phase, accelerated phase, or blast phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) who are resistant or intolerant to dasatinib, nilotinib or bosutinib. Allogenic stem cell transplantation is a curative treatment for patients with CML, but the excellent curative remission with TKI therapy have challenged the role of allogeneic stem cell transplantation as a first line therapy.

Keywords: Chronic myeloid leukemia, Imatinib, Dasatinib, Nilotinib, Bosutinib, Ponatinib.