Chronic Myeloid Leukemia
- Treatments
With targeted therapy, CML has become a very treatable condition for many patients with the disease.
In CML the target is tyrosine kinase which is the protein produced by the BCR-ABL mutated gene.
Target therapy drugs called tyrosine kinase inhibitors include:
- Imatinib
- Dasatinib
- Nilotinib
- Ponatinib
The choice between these agents is dependent on patient and disease characteristics. These drugs are extremely effective in treating CML and patients are monitored regularly for the presence of the BCR-ABL gene to monitor response to therapy.
In certain patients, this therapy may be stopped after achieving a deep response for a period of time. This is called treatment free remission.
While most patients respond very well to tyrosine kinase inhibitors, some patients may have more aggressive disease or have developed resistance to the therapy. In such cases conventional chemotherapy may be required and those in this situation may require a haematopoietic stem cell transplant.
