Clinical characteristics and hematologic responses to Imatinib in patients with chronic phase myeloid leukemia (CML) at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital.

AIM To analyze the clinical characteristics of patients with chronic phase CML and evaluate complete hematologic responses (CHR) and overall survival (OS) after treatment with Imatinib. METHODS This is a cross sectional study using retrospective medical record of patients with chromosome Philadelphia positive and/or BCR-ABL positive chronic phase CML at the polyclinic of Teratai Department of Internal Medicine Cipto Mangunkusumo National Hospital during 2003-2008. In a period of 6 years, we included 53 patients with chromosome Philadelphia positive and/or BCR-ABL positive chronic phase CML. Patients were administered Imatinib 400 mg daily and then evaluation of clinical characteristics and complete blood count + differential count were performed every 2 weeks until CHR achieved at 3 months as defined by white cells count < 10,000/mm3, platelet count > 450,000/mm3, and non palpable spleen. RESULTS The median age was 37 years (16-67 years). Males were slightly more frequent than females (29 v.s. 24) with ratio of 1.2:1. Thirty three percent of patients had splenomegaly. The vast majority (60%) of patients had previous treatment with Hydroxyurea. The laboratory features were: median of hemoglobin level was 10.0 g/dL (6.3-16.6 g/dL), median of white-cell count was 13,300/uL (1900-621,000/uL), and median of platelet count was 424,000/uL (108,000-4,400,000/uL). Median of basophils was 1.6% (0%-20%) and 88% of patients had <5% blasts in bone marrow. CONCLUSION A CHR was achieved in 74% of patients and overall survival during the study was 66%. The most common adverse events were: nausea, myalgia, hypopigmentation of the skin, anemia, thrombocytopenia, and neutropenia.