Clinical characteristics and hematologic responses to Imatinib in patients with chronic phase myeloid leukemia (CML) at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital.

Aim: To analyze the clinical characteristics of patients with chronic phase CML and evaluate complete hematologic responses (CHR) and overall survival (OS) after treatment with Imatinib.

Methods: This is a cross sectional study using retrospective medical record of patients with chromosome Philadelphia positive and/or BCR-ABL positive chronic phase CML at the polyclinic of Teratai Department of Internal Medicine Cipto Mangunkusumo National Hospital during 2003-2008. In a period of 6 years, we included 53 patients with chromosome Philadelphia positive and/or BCR-ABL positive chronic phase CML. Patients were administered Imatinib 400 mg daily and then evaluation of clinical characteristics and complete blood count + differential count were performed every 2 weeks until CHR achieved at 3 months as defined by white cells count < 10,000/mm3, platelet count > 450,000/mm3, and non palpable spleen.

Results: The median age was 37 years (16-67 years). Males were slightly more frequent than females (29 v.s. 24) with ratio of 1.2:1. Thirty three percent of patients had splenomegaly. The vast majority (60%) of patients had previous treatment with Hydroxyurea. The laboratory features were: median of hemoglobin level was 10.0 g/dL (6.3-16.6 g/dL), median of white-cell count was 13,300/uL (1900-621,000/uL), and median of platelet count was 424,000/uL (108,000-4,400,000/uL). Median of basophils was 1.6% (0%-20%) and 88% of patients had <5% blasts in bone marrow.

Conclusion: A CHR was achieved in 74% of patients and overall survival during the study was 66%. The most common adverse events were: nausea, myalgia, hypopigmentation of the skin, anemia, thrombocytopenia, and neutropenia.