Combining BCR-ABL1 transcript levels at 3 and 6 months in chronic myeloid leukemia: implications for early intervention strategies

Pratap Neelakantan1, Gareth Gerrard1, Claire Lucas2, Dragana Milojkovic1, Philippa May1, Lihui Wang2, Christos Paliompeis1, Marco Bua1, Alistair Reid1, Katayoun Rezvani1, Stephen O'Brien3, Richard Clark2, John Goldman1, and David Marin1, Abstract Several groups have shown that that the BCR-ABL1 transcript level measured at 3 or 6 months after starting treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors strongly predicts for clinical outcomes for CML patients. In this work we asked whether the prognostic value of the 3-month transcript level could be improved by combining the 3- and 6- month results.