Multicenter Trial Estimating the Persistence of Molecular Remission in Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia in Long Term After Stopping Imatinib (STIM 2)

• Rate of molecular relapse defined by the rate of patients having a significant increasing of BCR-ABL transcript. [ Time Frame: Every months during two years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  

• Overall survival [ Time Frame: after two years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Number of patients alive or died will be measured
  
  
• Clinical and biological profile of patient with complete molecular remission persistence [ Time Frame: after two years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  The relevant clinical and biological factors which could be predictive of the the complete molecular remission persistence will be measured by dosage in the blood.
  
  
• Treatment costs according to days without imatinib. [ Time Frame: after two years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  
• Event-free survival [ Time Frame: after two years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  All adverse events will be reported to know what kind of adverse events occured to patients without treatment, number of patients with adverse events and in particular number of patients with lost of complete molecular remission.
  
  

The gold standard for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is Imatinib, the first tyrosine inhibitor (TKI) of BCR-ABL. Imatinib specifically targets the BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase encoded by the BCR-ABL fusion gene, the molecular hallmark of CML. Regular monitoring of BCR-ABL transcript levels by quantitative RT-PCR is of key importance for the assessment of treatment response to imatinib.

Over time, an increasing proportion of imatinib-treated patients obtain a complete molecular response (CMR), defined as an undetectable molecular residual disease. In a previous study, STIM trial (PHRC 2006, stop Imatinib), 100 patients were included. The preliminary analysis among 69 patients having a median follow up of 21 months shows that the probability to maintain the CMR at 12 months is 45%. Our goal is actually to include up to 200 patients and then let the STIM opened during 3 years in a way to determine the predictive factors of the molecular relapse Discontinuation of treatment is proposed after checking selection criteria and signing informed consent. The assessment of BCR-ABL in peripheral blood by quantitative RT-PCR is performed every month during the first year then every two months second year then every three months during 3 years.

The molecular relapse after imatinib discontinuation is defined by positive PCR for BCR-ABL two times using RTQ-PCR with increasing of the transcript on two following assessment and or a value> 0.1% i.e. lost of MMR. In case of molecular relapse it is recommended to re-challenge an imatinib treatment. According to our experience the 50 patients well documented who re challenged the treatment were sensitive again. The treatment of molecular relapse by second generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors (dasatinib or nilotinib) will possible in the current trial. It is important for all the French patients to be included in a national trial to avoid discontinuation without evaluation.