Clinical characteristics and therapeutic outcomes of elderly patients

Abstract

AimsWe aimed to investigate whether older age leads to limitations in the starting dose of imatinib in daily treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia, and to determine the compliance of elderly patients with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) therapy.

MethodsData including the clinical characteristics, therapeutic outcomes and compliance with TKI therapy of elderly patients with chronic myeloid leukemia aged >65years were collected from 13 institutions in Turkey, retrospectively.

ResultsA total of 69 patients (27 [39%] men, 42 [61%] women) were evaluated retrospectively. The median age of the patients was 71years (range 66-85years). Of the patients, 66 (96%) were in the chronic phase and three (4.3%) were in the accelerated phase when diagnosed. A total of 63 (91.3%) patients were receiving imatinib as the first-line therapy. The initial dose of imatinib was 400mg/day in 59 patients (93.6%). Imatinib treatment induced 57 (90.5%) complete hematological responses at 3months, 29 (46%) complete cytogenetic responses at 6months and 49 (77.7%) major molecular responses at 12months. As a result, nilotinib and dasatinib were used in 14 patients as second-line therapy. Second-line TKI induced nine complete hematological responses (64.3%) at 3months, four complete cytogenetic responses (28.6%) at 12months and seven major molecular responses (50%) at 18months. A total of 56 of the patients (81.2%) are still alive. The median overall survival and progression-free survival rates were 35months (range 1-95months) and 17months (range 0.8-95months), respectively.

ConclusionElderly patients should receive TKI according to the same guidelines that apply to younger patients. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2015; 15: 729-735.