Long-term efficacy and safety of dasatinib in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia in accelerated phase who are resistant to or intolerant of imatinib

Treatment with a frontline BCR-ABL1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI; e.g., imatinib, dasatinib, and nilotinib) allows patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in chronic phase (CP) to achieve a near normal life expectancy1, whereas treatment for CML in accelerated phase (AP) is more problematic. While reports describe outcomes for patients with CML-AP at initial diagnosis2,3, outcomes have been historically worse once CP disease has progressed to AP. Approximately 50% of patients with CML-AP who receive imatinib as initial treatment develop imatinib resistance4 and experience disease progression5. Second-generation TKIs are indicated for patients with CML-CP or advanced CML resistant to/intolerant of prior therapy (including imatinib)6. After initial approval of dasatinib twice a day (BID) for the treatment of patients with CML resistant to/intolerant of imatinib in all stages, this phase 3 CA180-035 study (NCT00123487) was developed to investigate once (QD) or twice (BID) a day dasatinib treatment in patients with CML-AP, CML in blast phase, or Ph+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia resistant to/intolerant of imatinib.