Increased Eligibility for Attempting Treatment-Free Remission (TFR) with Frontline Nilotinib (NIL) vs Imatinib (IM) in Patients with Philadelphia Chromosome-Positive (Ph plus ) Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML): Results of a Stochastic Simulation Model

Abstract

Abstract Background : Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have dramatically improved outcomes in patients with Ph+ CML, in part by allowing achievement of sustained, low levels of BCR-ABL1 transcripts (quantified on the International Scale [IS]). TFR studies (eg, STIM, ENESTfreedom) evaluate whether some of these patients can stop TKI therapy and maintain a therapeutic molecular response off treatment. Here, we evaluated BCR-ABL1IS transcript levels of patients treated with frontline NIL 300 mg twice daily or IM 400 mg once daily for ≥ 1 year to predict time to TFR eligibility according to the ENESTfreedom trial criteria. Methods : A statistical mo..