Dr. Donnellan on TFR in Patients With CML Treated With Nilotinib

William B. Donnellan, MD, investigator, Hematologic Malignancies, principal investigator, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses preliminary results of the ENESTop study, which explored treatment-free remission (TFR) in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in chronic phase who were treated with second-line nilotinib (Tasigna).

While nilotinib demonstrates promising activity in patients, it is associated with high costs as well as toxicities, Donnellan explains. In this study, patients were treated with nilotinib for 1 year. If they remained in complete remission, treatment with nilotinib was discontinued and patients were closely observed.

Sixty percent of patients were found to remain in a complete remission at about 48 weeks after discontinuing treatment. Additionally, 98% patients who came out of remission, and then continued with treatment with nilotinib, were able to re-enter remission.