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Curing Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

  • Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (J Goldman, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Hematologic Malignancy Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) targeted against the BCR-ABL1 oncoprotein has proven remarkably successful in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and long-term survival has become a reality. Despite this outstanding progress, detection of minimal residual disease precludes therapy termination in most TKI-receiving patients. CML has thus turned into a chronic illness, raising concerns about long-term safety, medication adherence, and health care costs. Although treatment cessation may be feasible in few selected patients achieving deep molecular responses, a definitive cure remains elusive owing to the discovery that TKIs spare quiescent leukemic stem cells (LSC). Understanding mechanisms underlying LSC behavior in TKI-treated patients may provide important clues to develop an array of strategies that ensure the complete destruction of LSC reservoirs and thereby offer CML patients a definitive cure.

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Disclosure

D. Rea: board membership for Novartis Pharma and Bristol-Myers Squibb, consultant and speakers’ bureaus for Novartis Pharma; P. Rousselot: board membership for Pfizer and speakers’ bureaus for Bristol-Myers Squibb; J. Guilhot: none; F. Guilhot: none; F. X. Mahon: board membership for Novartis Pharma, BMS, and Pfizer and consultant to Novartis Pharma and BMS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Service des Maladies du Sang et EA3518, Hôpital Saint-Louis, AP-HP, 1, Avenue Claude Vellefaux, 75475, Paris Cedex 10, France

    Delphine Rea

  2. Service d’Hématologie et d’Oncologie, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, UFR Paris Ile-de-France Ouest, Hôpital Mignot, Le Chesnay, France

    Philippe Rousselot

  3. Inserm CIC 0802, Université de Poitiers, CHU de Poitiers, Poitiers, France

    Joelle Guilhot & François Guilhot

  4. Laboratoire Hématopoïèse Leucémique et Cible Thérapeutique, Biothérapies des maladies génétiques et cancers, INSERM U1035, Université Bordeaux Ségalen, Bordeaux, France

    François-Xavier Mahon

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  1. Delphine Rea
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  2. Philippe Rousselot
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  3. Joelle Guilhot
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  4. François Guilhot
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  5. François-Xavier Mahon
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Correspondence to Delphine Rea.

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Rea, D., Rousselot, P., Guilhot, J. et al. Curing Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. Curr Hematol Malig Rep 7, 103–108 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11899-012-0117-2

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