Clinical characteristics and therapeutic outcomes of elderly patients with chronic myeloid leukemia: A retrospective multicenter study.

Aims: We aimed to investigate whether older age leads to limitations in the starting dose of imatinib in daily treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia, and to determine the compliance of elderly patients with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) therapy.

Methods: Data including the clinical characteristics, therapeutic outcomes and compliance with TKI therapy of elderly patients with chronic myeloid leukemia aged >65 years were collected from 13 institutions in Turkey, retrospectively.

Results: A total of 69 patients (27 [39%] men, 42 [61%] women) were evaluated retrospectively. The median age of the patients was 71 years (range 66-85 years). Of the patients, 66 (96%) were in the chronic phase and three (4.3%) were in the accelerated phase when diagnosed. A total of 63 (91.3%) patients were receiving imatinib as the first-line therapy. The initial dose of imatinib was 400 mg/day in 59 patients (93.6%). Imatinib treatment induced 57 (90.5%) complete hematological responses at 3 months, 29 (46%) complete cytogenetic responses at 6 months and 49 (77.7%) major molecular responses at 12 months. As a result, nilotinib and dasatinib were used in 14 patients as second-line therapy. Second-line TKI induced nine complete hematological responses (64.3%) at 3 months, four complete cytogenetic responses (28.6%) at 12 months and seven major molecular responses (50%) at 18 months. A total of 56 of the patients (81.2%) are still alive. The median overall survival and progression-free survival rates were 35 months (range 1-95 months) and 17 months (range 0.8-95 months), respectively.

Conclusion: Elderly patients should receive TKI according to the same guidelines that apply to younger patients.