Annals of hematology
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Annals of hematology · Apr 2015
Review Comparative StudyCauses of resistance and treatment choices of second- and third-line treatment in chronic myelogenous leukemia patients.
For patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia who fail first-line therapy, several factors should be considered for the decision of the next treatment option. Second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) dasatinib, nilotinib, and bosutinib offer improved potency and a high likelihood of success for these patients. Overall, efficacy data are comparable for these agents, and so physicians should consider the BCR-ABL1 mutation profile and the patient's history to make a decision on the best choice. ⋯ However, optimal dose of ponatinib is still under investigation. Overall, it is recommended to select a drug that minimizes the likelihood of worsening the patient's past side effects or comorbid conditions. In any case, chance and risk of allogeneic stem cell transplantation should be compared with the long-term outcome of TKI therapy in patients eligible for this procedure.
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Annals of hematology · Apr 2015
Interobserver variance in myelodysplastic syndromes with less than 5 % bone marrow blasts: unilineage vs. multilineage dysplasia and reproducibility of the threshold of 2 % blasts.
Previous studies have shown the reproducibility of the 2008 World Health Organization (WHO) classification in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), especially when multilineage dysplasia or excess of blasts are present. However, there are few data regarding the reproducibility of MDS with unilineage dysplasia. The revised International Prognostic Scoring System R-IPSS described two new morphological categories, distinguishing bone marrow (BM) blast cell count between 0-2 % and >2- < 5 %. ⋯ Regarding BM blast count, the threshold of ≤2 % was not reproducible (discordance rate 32/108 cases, kappa test 0.277). Our study shows that among MDS WHO 2008 categories, interobserver discordance seems to be high in cases with unilineage dysplasia. We also illustrate that the threshold of ≤2 % BM blasts as settled by the R-IPSS may be not easy to reproduce by morphologists in real practice.