First and second line imatinib treatment in chronic myelogenous leukemia patients expressing rare e1a2 or e19a2 BCR-ABL transcripts.

During the formation of the Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome, in the majority of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patients, the chromosome 22 breakpoint is located in the major breakpoint cluster region of the BCR gene (M-bcr). Minor and micro breakpoint cluster regions (m-bcr with e1a2 transcript and micro-bcr with e19a2 transcript) are rarely affected and have been suggested to be associated with peculiar CML phenotypes. Despite the different clinical characteristics, it is currently not established, whether different therapeutic options are preferably recommended for the treatment of e1a2 or e19a2 CML. Here we report two patients with e1a2 and one patient with e19a2 translocations, treated with different approaches including imatinib. First and second line imatinib treatments induced haematologic response in all of the three patients, and major cytogenetic response in one patient with e1a2, as well as in the patient with e19a2 CML. However, relapse occurred in the patient with e19a2 CML, possibly caused by the presence of additional chromosomal abnormalities such as an extra Ph chromosome, and loss of chromosome Y. Stem cell transplantation (SCT) therapy caused complete haematologic response with molecular remission; however, the patient died of infectious complication. We conclude that in patients with rare BCR-ABL variants, the effectiveness of imatininb treatment may be influenced by the CML stage besides the actual molecular type of the rare transcript. However, this conclusion cannot be generalized to larger patient groups with rare BCR-ABL variants for which further studies may be needed. 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.