The quote above from Dr. Cortes is exactly what he told me in person (he's my Oncologist at M.D. Anderson). He cares most about CCyR - cytogenetic response. When patients achieve CCyR, chances of them dying from something other than CML is near 100%. His goal is to eliminate CML as a life ending disease. Getting to CCyR where FISH = zero is what he seeks for his patients.
Once there (i.e. CCyR where FISH = zero), then getting to MMR and below is what he works to do to see if living TKI free is possible. That, he said, is much harder. 50-50 chance. Those are great odds given we're dealing with cancer.
it goes back to my forum comments over the years that CML is not going to kill us - not like it used to. Not any more. I'm thankful for that. Can we be cured? For 50% of us, that is a real possibility. For - Trey - he's already there.
Thanks Scuba.