Nilotinib With Chemotherapy for the Treatment of Philadelphia Chromosome Positive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Overview

Patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and positivity for the breakpoint cluster region-Abelson murine leukemia (BCR-ABL) protein or the Philadelphia chromosome have a poor prognosis with standard chemotherapy. The prognosis seemed to improve following the adition of imatinibe, a BCR-ABL inhibitor, to the treatment but still a substantial amount of patients relapse or progress during treatment. Nilotinib is a BCR-ABL inhibitor more potent than imatinib. It has been shown to be effective against most of the cells that bear mutations of the BCR-ABL protein leading to resistance to imatinibe. The investigators' hypothesis is that the addition of nilotinib to a standard chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) will translate into more rapid BCR-ABL reduction and effectiveness against imatinib-resistant clones leading to less relapses and better survival.

Conditions

Interventions