American society of clinical oncology, 2010 annual meeting and rose bengal: from a wool dye to a cancer therapy.

and in 72% of the imatinib arms (P = 0.0011); confirmed CCyRs were reported in 77% and 66% of patients in the two groups, respectively (P = 0.0067). An analysis of CCyR rates at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months revealed that the likelihood of achieving CCyRs at all points remained approximately 50% higher with dasatinib than with imatinib throughout the study (P < 0.001; hazard ratio [HR], –1.53). MMR rates followed a similar pattern, with 12-month rates at 46% for dasatinib 100 mg once daily and 28% for imatinib 400 mg once daily (P < 0.0001). Patients were twice as likely to achieve MMRs at any time with dasatinib than with imatinib. The median time to achieve MMRs was 6.3 months for dasatinib and 9.2 months for imatinib. Progression to the accelerated or blast phase was less frequent with dasatinib (1.9%) than with imatinib (3.5%). None of the patients who achieved MMRs progressed to the accelerated or blast phase. Twelve-month overall survival was similar for both groups (97.2% for dasatinib and 98.8% for imatinib). Adverse event-related discontinuations were low (1.2% with dasatinib and 0.4% with imatinib). Dr. Kantarjian concluded that dasatinib 100 mg once daily should become first-line therapy in patients with newly diagnosed CP–CML. He added, “Based on the predictive value of complete cytogenetic responses, longer follow-up of first-line dasatinib may demonstrate better long-term outcomes than imatinib.”