Therapy adapted to molecular response in patients with chronic myelogenous leukaemia in first chronic phase: results of the Duesseldorf study.

This study evaluates response-adapted treatment of chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) in chronic phase using molecular response criteria. bcr-abl/G6PDH ratios were assessed by Light-Cycler quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR( in 277 peripheral blood samples from 33 patients, before and every 3 months during therapy. Sixty-six per cent (22/33) of the patients fulfiled our molecular response criterion of > or = 1 log decrease in bcr-abl transcript after 6 or > or = 2 log decrease after 9 and every following 3 months.