First Line of Treatment of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in Children and Adolescents in the Republic of Belarus

Survival was cardinally increased after introducing Imatinib into the first line of therapy of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in children. However primary or second resistance was observed in 20–30 % of patients. For the purpose of detection of prognostic factors, a minimal residual disease was monitored in 22 patients at an age of 0–17 years. Furthermore, different variants of BCR/ABL transcript were identified. The results showed that patients with an early major molecular response and a b3a2 variant of the BCR/ABL transcript had significantly better results of treatment. In conclusion, a regular monitoring of a deep molecular response and a further correction of therapy allowed one to increase long-term overall survival in children with CML.