Key clinical point: De-escalation of tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy from continuous to intermittent (1 month ON/OFF) schedule effectively maintained molecular response 3/4 (MR3/4) during the first year in elderly patients with chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML-CP).
Major finding: The 1-year probability of maintaining MR3 with intermittent TKI therapy was 81% (95% confidence interval, 75%-87%). Of the 39 patients who lost MR, 95% regained at least MR3 within 6 months of resuming continuous TKI. No treatment-related adverse events were reported.
Study details : Findings are from the first interim analysis of the phase 3 OPTkIMA trial including 185 patients with CML-CP (age, 60 years or more) who were in stable MR3/4 after 2 or more years of daily treatment with TKI.
Disclosures: The authors did not report any source of funding. The lead author had no disclosures. Some other coinvestigators reported ties with various pharmaceutical companies.
Source: Malagola M et al. Cancer Med. 2021 Feb 16. doi: 10.1002/cam4.3778.