Abstract

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors targeting the BCR-ABL1 oncoprotein represent an outstanding progress in chronic myeloid leukemia and long-term progression-free survival has become a reality for a majority of patients. However, tyrosine kinase inhibitors may at best chronicize rather than cure the disease thus current recommendation is to pursue treatment indefinitely. As a consequence, high quality treatment and care must integrate optimal disease control and treatment tolerability. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors have an overall favorable safety profile in clinical practice since most adverse events are mild to moderate in intensity. However, recent evidence has emerged that new generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors may sometimes damage vital organs and if not adequately managed, morbidity and mortality may increase. The 3rd generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor ponatinib is licensed for the treatment of chronic, accelerated or blast phase chronic myeloid leukaemia patients who are resistant to dasatinib or nilotinib; intolerant of dasatinib or nilotinib and for whom further treatment with imatinib is not clinically appropriate; or who express the T315I mutation. Ponatinib represents an important therapeutic option but it is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. The purpose of this article by the France Intergroupe des Leucémies Myéloïdes Chroniques is to provide an overview of ponatinib efficacy and cardiovascular safety profile and to propose practical recommendations with the goal to minimize the risk and severity of cardiovascular events in ponatinib-treated patients.

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