FROM 2016 ASCO ANNUAL MEETING
Treatment-free remission attempts are safe and are achievable in most patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in chronic phase, Timothy P. Hughes, MD, and his colleagues in the international ENESTop trial reported at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
The conclusion is based on follow-up data on 126 patients who achieved a sustained deep molecular response (MR4.5) after switching from imatinib (Gleevec) to nilotinib (Tasigna) and discontinued nilotinib. So far, these are the largest prospective treatment-free remission data set in a population of patients who achieved a sustained deep molecular response after switching from imatinib to nilotinib, Dr. Hughes, head of hematology at the University of Adelaide and his colleagues wrote in a poster presentation.
The ENESTop study is a single-arm, phase II study. Patients eligible for the study started treatment with imatinib when they were first diagnosed with CML, then switched to nilotinib for at least 2 years with the combined time on the drugs of at least 3 years and small amounts of leukemia cells remaining after the nilotinib treatment.
For the consolidation phase of the study, patients continued their nilotinib therapy for 1 year. Patients without confirmed loss of MR4.5 after 1 year were eligible to stop nilotinib. RQ-PCR (reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction) was monitored every 12 weeks in the consolidation phase of the study and every 4 weeks during first 48 weeks of treatment-free remission. Nilotinib was restarted if patients had confirmed loss of deep molecular response (MR4 [consecutive BCR-ABL1IS greater than 0.01%]) or loss of major molecular response ([MMR] BCR-ABL1IS greater than 0.1%).
Of the 163 patients in the consolidation phase of the study, 126 entered treatment-free remission. Their median duration of tyrosine kinase inhibitor use prior to treatment-free remission was nearly 88 months, with a 53-month median duration of nilotinib therapy. At data cut-off, with median follow up of 50 weeks, 58% of the 126 patients were still in treatment-free remission at 48 weeks.
During treatment-free remission, 18 patients had confirmed loss of MR4 and 34 lost MMR. One patient had atypical transcript and came off the study. All but one of the 52 patients reinitiated nilotinib; 50 (98%) regained at least MMR by data cut-off, 48 (94%) regained MR4, and 47 (92%) regained MR4.5. One patient switched to another tyrosine kinase inhibitor at 22 weeks after restarting therapy.
Of those who restarted therapy, the median time was 12 weeks to regain MR4 and was 13 weeks to regain MR4.5. No new safety findings were observed on treatment.
The study is sponsored by Novartis, the maker of nilotinib (Tasigna). Dr. Hughes receives research support and honoraria from, and is a consultant or advisor to Novartis as well as Ariad and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
On Twitter @maryjodales
