Leukemia
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Safety and efficacy of STI-571 (imatinib mesylate) in patients with bcr/abl-positive chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) after autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT).
We examined safety and efficacy of STI-571 in 24 bcr/abl-positive patients with CML post PBSCT. At start of STI-571 therapy, nine patients presented in blast crisis (BC) or in accelerated phase (AP), and 15 in chronic phase (CP). Patients were evaluated for hematologic, cytogenetic and molecular response, survival and toxicity. ⋯ This report indicates that STI-571 is a safe and effective drug in heavily pretreated patients. No apparent additional side-effects were noted in this patient cohort. The high rate of complete hematologic and complete cytogenetic responses in CP patients is remarkable, as intensive treatment approaches plus IFN-alpha failed to be efficient in achieving long-term stabilization of CML in this patient cohort.