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e-Article

Positive response to imatinib mesylate therapy for childhood chronic myeloid leukemia
Document Type
report
Source
Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research. June 2010 43(6)
Subject
Chronic myeloid leukemia
Imatinib mesylate
Minimal residual disease
Children
Language
English
ISSN
0100-879X
Abstract
Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is rare in the pediatric population, accounting for 2-3% of childhood leukemia cases, with an annual incidence of one case per million children. The low toxicity profile of imatinib mesylate has led to its approval as a front-line therapy in children for whom interferon treatment has failed or who have relapsed after allogeneic transplantation. We describe the positive responses of 2 children (case 1 - from a 7-year-old male since May 2005; case 2 - from a 5-year-old female since June 2006) with Philadelphia-positive chromosome CML treated with imatinib (300 mg/day, orally) for up to 28 months, as evaluated by morphological, cytogenetic, and molecular approaches. Our patients are alive, are in the chronic phase, and are in continuous morphological complete remission.