Tyrosine kinase inhibitors for elderly chronic myeloid leukemia patients: a systematic review of efficacy and safety data.

The impact of age as a poor prognostic factor in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has been well described. In the interferon era, elderly patients diagnosed as having chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CP-CML) had shorter survival compared to younger patients. With the advent of target therapy with imatinib, several reports described improved responses in elderly late CP-CML patients treated with imatinib after IFN failure, with similar overall survival compared to younger population. Imatinib in newly diagnosed older patients showed similar rate of cytogenetic and molecular responses compared to younger patients. Few data are available relating elderly CML patients subset treated with second-generation TKIs after resistance/intolerance to imatinib: both nilotinib and dasatinib have demonstrated efficacy and limited toxicity profile as in younger patients. The aim of this review is, through the revision of published data, to highlight the fact that elderly CML patients can benefit from target therapy with limited adverse events.