Imatinib dose hike in suboptimal response and failure in CML CP: Results from a developing nation.

e18003 Background: As perEuropean Leukemia Net (ELN) guidelines Imatinib 400mg/day is the standard of care in CML-CP. Options for patients with suboptimal response and failure are dose hike or change to second line TKIs. In resource poor countries where second line TKIs are expensive, dose hike of Imatinib may be an alternative. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed all CML - CP patients requiring dose hike at our centre from 2003-2009. Mutational analysis could not be performed. The trigger for dose hike to 600mg was suboptimal response or failure as per ELN 2010 guidelines. Event free survival (EFS), transformation free survival (TFS), and overall survival (OS) were analysed. EFS was defined as time from dose escalation to transformation to BC/AP or lost to follow up or death due to any cause. OS was defined as time from dose escalation to death. TFS was defined as progression to BC/AP from dose hike. Cytogenetic response was evaluated. Statistical analysis is done using Graphpad Prism. Results: There we...