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Questioning the aim of CML therapy in the era of Imatinib?

Leukemia volume 17, pages 1199–1200 (2003)Cite this article

TO THE EDITOR

The idea of writing this comment came from a recent episode of the television series ‘Law and Order’, recently refferred to Stephen MacKinnon during a Plenary Session at the last ASCO Meeting. The episode depicted the trial of a father who shot an insurance executive for refusing to authorize the use of Imatinib for his daughter. Dr McKinnon concluded his talk saying that cost and availability of this novel targeted treatment is clearly going to pose serious problems. This episode confirms the great dilemma on the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) on the one hand and on the importance of media on the other. Imatinib could be considered the standard first-line therapy for patients with CML,1 even if long-term survival and long-term toxicity remain unknown. Unfortunately, the International Randomized trial IFN-α/Ara-C vs Imatinib is still at 19 months and no firm conclusion may be drawn on blastic evolution and survival, with the exception of major cytogenetic remission already in favor of Imatinib. In the meantime, many studies involving Imatinib combined with Peg-IFN or low-dose ARA-C started many months ago, but the results of the above-randomized trial are not yet available.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by ‘Un Taglio per la vita’ Milano, Italy.

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  1. Department of Onco-Hematology, Division of Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, IRCCS ‘Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza’, San Giovanni Rotondo (FG), Italy

    A M Carella

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Carella, A. Questioning the aim of CML therapy in the era of Imatinib?. Leukemia 17, 1199–1200 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2402954

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