Frequency of Major Molecular Responses to Imatinib or Interferon Alfa plus Cytarabine in Newly Diagnosed Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

The proportion of patients with CML who had a reduction in BCR-ABL transcript levels of at least 3 log by 12 months of therapy was far greater with imatinib treatment than with treatment with interferon plus cytarabine. Patients in the imatinib group with this degree of molecular response had a negligible risk of disease progression during the subsequent 12 months.