Long-term treatment-free remission in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia after second-line nilotinib: ENESTop 5-year update

Leukemia. 2021 Jun;35(6):1631-1642. doi: 10.1038/s41375-021-01260-y. Epub 2021 May 12.

Abstract

The ENESTop study evaluated treatment-free remission (TFR) in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in chronic phase who had received ≥3 years of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy and achieved sustained deep molecular response only after switching from imatinib to nilotinib. After 1-year nilotinib consolidation, 126 patients attempted TFR. At 48 weeks (primary analysis), 57.9% (73/126) were in TFR. In the present analysis at 5 years, 42.9% (54/126) were in TFR. Since the 48-week analysis, among patients who left the TFR phase, 58% (11/19) did not have a loss of molecular response and discontinued for other reasons. Of the 59 patients who reinitiated nilotinib upon loss of major molecular response (MMR) or confirmed loss of MR4, 98.3% regained MMR, 94.9% regained MR4, and 93.2% regained MR4.5. Overall adverse event rates decreased over the 5 years of TFR. In patients reinitiating nilotinib, there was a cumulative increase in cardiovascular events with longer nilotinib exposure. No disease progression or CML-related deaths were reported. Overall, these results confirm the durability and safety of TFR for patients receiving second-line nilotinib. Cardiovascular risk should be carefully managed, particularly when reinitiating treatment after TFR.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Clinical Trials, Phase II as Topic
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / drug therapy*
  • Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / pathology
  • Long-Term Care / methods*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Prognosis
  • Prospective Studies
  • Pyrimidines / therapeutic use*
  • Remission Induction
  • Survival Rate

Substances

  • Pyrimidines
  • nilotinib