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  • Letter to the Editor
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Reply to ‘Epidemiological analysis of second primary malignancies in more than 9500 patients treated with imatinib’ by Pilot et al.

Leukemia volume 20, page 149 (2006)Cite this article

In their reply, Pilot et al. report the incidence rate of second malignancies in CML patients treated with imatinib, using the epidemiological database of Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation.1 It includes 9518 patients treated during sponsored clinical trial and spontaneous adverse reports from 124 000 patient-years of treatment. They report that the observed incidence rate is quite similar to that expected in the general population, with 110 malignant neoplasm including 16 prostate, two urinary bladder and three kidney cancers.

Although their analysis concern a large number of patients, it remains unclear, however, how many patients were included in trials or treated outside trials and their corresponding duration of follow up. This information could be relevant, as regards to the under-reporting of adverse events for nonclinical trial patients. Moreover, their database has included patients from different institutions and nationalities (i.e. US and European). Also Pilot et al. refers to the US general epidemiological database (SEER) only (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program (http://www.seer.cancer.gov)).

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References

  1. Pilot PR, Sablinska K, Owen S, Hatfield A . Epidemiological analysis of second primary malignancies in more than 9500 patients treated with imatinib. Leukemia 2006.

  2. Roy L, Guilhot J, Martineau G, Larchée R, Guilhot F . Unexpected occurrence of second malignancies in patients treated with interferon followed by imatinib mesylate for chronic myelogenous leukaemia. Leukemia 2005; 19 (9): 1689–1692.

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  1. Department of Oncology-Hematology and Cell Therapy, Clinical Research Centre, Poitiers, France

    L Roy, J Guilhot, G Martineau & F Guilhot

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  1. L Roy
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  2. J Guilhot
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  3. G Martineau
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  4. F Guilhot
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Correspondence to F Guilhot.

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Roy, L., Guilhot, J., Martineau, G. et al. Reply to ‘Epidemiological analysis of second primary malignancies in more than 9500 patients treated with imatinib’ by Pilot et al.. Leukemia 20, 149 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2404027

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