Telomere length shortening is associated with treatment-free remission in chronic myeloid leukemia patients

J Hematol Oncol. 2016 Jul 29;9(1):63. doi: 10.1186/s13045-016-0293-y.

Abstract

We studied telomere length in 32 CML patients who discontinued imatinib after achieving complete molecular remission and 32 age-sex-matched controls. The relative telomere length (RTL) was determined by q-PCR as the telomere to single copy gene (36B4) ratio normalized to a reference sample (K-562 DNA). Age-corrected RTL (acRTL) was also obtained. The 36-month probability of treatment-free remission (TFR) was 59.4 %. TFR patients showed shorter acRTL compared to relapsed (mean ± SD = 0.01 ± 0.14 vs 0.20 ± 0.21; p = 0.01). TFR was significantly higher in CML patients with acRTL ≤0.09 (78.9 vs 30.8 %, p = 0.002). CML stem cells harboring longer telomeres possibly maintain a proliferative potential after treatment discontinuation.

Keywords: Chronic myeloid leukemia; Imatinib; Telomerase; Telomere; Treatment-free remission.

Publication types

  • Letter

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Imatinib Mesylate / therapeutic use
  • Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / drug therapy
  • Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / pathology*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Remission Induction
  • Telomere / ultrastructure
  • Telomere Shortening* / genetics
  • Withholding Treatment*

Substances

  • Imatinib Mesylate