Ongoing treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors might not be essential to maintain recovery, according to research presented at the European Haematology Association 21st Congress in Copenhagen.

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) have substantially improved survival in patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia in chronic phase.

However, treatment is in clinical practice considered life-long.

Small clinical trials have previously shown that TKI-therapy can be stopped in 40-60% of patients with a very good therapy response.

The purpose in EURO-SKI was to determine the proportion of patients keeping their therapy response after stopping TKIs and to determine clinical and biological factors that predict successful TKI-stop.

868 patients at 61 sites in 11 European countries were registered in the study.

Patients were required to have had at least three years of TKI-therapy and to have had a very good response (MR4) to therapy for at least one year prior to study entry.

Only patients who had not failed prior TKI-treatment were included.

Results of the trial show that 62% of the patients still maintained treatment response (MMR) 6 months after stopping therapy.

This was 56% at 12 months.

Duration of TKI therapy and of very good therapy response (MR4) prior to stopping was found to predict successful stop.

However, neither gender, age or risk score of the disease were linked to the likelihood of successful stopping of TKI therapy.

Source: EHA 2016