Successful treatment with nilotinib due to chronic myeloid leukemia in the patient previously treated with imatinib that was complicated by aplastic anemia

Abstract

The case of 56-year-old female with chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase is presented. The patient developed severe aplastic anemia after 3 weeks of treatment with imatinib (IM) (2 weeks at the dose of 400 mg and one week at the dose of 300 mg daily). The treatment was discontinued. It took 16 months to achieve normalization of blood cells morphology. Due to hematological toxicity of IM, treatment with nilotinib as a second-line therapy was introduced. No haematologic complications were observed during 54 months of treatment with nilotinib. Complete cytogenetic response and major molecular response were achieved after 6 and 18 months of treatment, respectively. Complete molecular response was noted after 51 months on nilotinib.