Recently published in Oncology Times:
http://journals.lww....ible_for.4.aspx
Jorge Cortes, MD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the CML Section in the Department of Leukemia of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, commented: "Stopping TKI therapy is an attractive concept with important consequences for patients, but if I was a CML patient on a TKI, I would never let the doctor take away the drug. Why take chances? Most of my patients have been on therapy for seven or eight years and are stable. I discuss this three or four times a day in the clinic, but only a handful decide to stop TKIs."
"No one knows why some patients who achieve CMR relapse, he continued. "There must be something else involved— perhaps differences in the immune system or the biology of the disease. Once we learn that, then stopping therapy becomes more attractive." He added that stopping TKI therapy "should be done only with close monitoring. If the patient relapses, we want to know quickly."
JORGE CORTES, MD: St...
