Management of chronic myeloid leukemia in France: a multicentered cross-sectional study on 538 patients

Abstract

Little is known about the actual management and treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in clinical practice, although there have been many recent changes, such as the introduction of imatinib. A two-phase cross-sectional observational study with retrospective data collection was conducted in France. In the first phase information regarding health services treating patients with CML was collected. In the second phase, centers caring for 10 or more patients were asked to provide data regarding patients diagnosed with CML that had had a consultation or been hospitalized in the last 3 months. All French departments of hematology (n=218) were contacted by phone. The median number of patients followed per center is 6 (range 0--200). The median number of new patients seen during the last 12 months was 2 (range 0--60). In the second phase 538 patients were included, the sex ratio being 1.14 and median age 55. At the time of diagnosis, 96.8% (n=519) were in chronic phase, 2.2% (n=12) in accelerated phase and 0.9% (n=5) in blastic phase. Eighty-two percent (n=443) of the patients have been treated by interferon (IFN). Sixteen point 3% (n=87) of the patients received a bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Forty-six percent (n=236) of the patients were treated with imatinib. This is the first study providing detailed descriptive data concerning the use of medications and procedures in a large population of patients from the medical centers involved in treating CML patients in France. Further observational studies are needed to assess the impact of different treatment strategies and economic impact of CML care in France.