'The HemOnc Pulse' Live: What Research is Needed in CML?

At “The HemOnc Pulse” Live in Chicago, Illinois, Sangeetha Venugopal, MD, of the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, spoke with Chadi Nabhan, MD, MBA, FACP, about the panel on unanswered questions in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).

Dr. Nabhan first asked Dr. Venugopal what her main takeaways from the panel were.

“We still have to find out the appropriate treatment for CML blast phase because we do think that the CML blast phase, which is either myeloid or lymphoid, is a completely different disease compared to the de novo [Acute Myeloid Leukemia] with the BCR-ABL translocation or Philadelphia-positive [Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia], so we don’t have standard of care therapies,” Dr. Venugopal responded.

Dr. Nabhan then cited the discussion on tyrosine kinase inhibitors used in the first-line therapy of chronic phase CML. Dr. Venugopal noted that, in her practice, it often comes down to insurance approval and cost. Imatinib is approved in the first-line and can be obtained as generic, while dasatinib does not have a generic formulation.

“Sometimes when we start the patient on dasatinib, we don’t get approval right away and we have to go for patient assistance program so the patient doesn’t have a copay,” Dr. Venugopal said. “Sometimes we still go to [generic imatinib], which is easier even if the insurance doesn’t approve imatinib.”