Changes of immunological, Cytogenetic & Hematological Profiles in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Treated with Imatinib Mesylate

Abstract

Background: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) (also known as chronic myelogenous leukemia, chronic granulocyticleukemia) is a clonal disease that results from an acquired genetic change in a pluripotential hemopoietic stemcell .Imatinib mesylate, is an inhibitor of the family of ABL kinases, these proteins serves a complex role in cellcycling and is important in lymphopoiesis, and has been shown to have impressive clinical activity in chronicmyeloid leukemiaObjectives: to assess the immunological, cytogenetic, and hematological parameters in patients with chronic myeloidleukemia on imatinib therapyMaterial and methods: Thirty one CML patients treated with imatinib mesylate at standard dosage were enrolled inthis prospective study. All patients were seen in the Department of hematology at the national center ofhematology /Almustansiriya University for six months from February to July 2012.Data on blood cell counts andblood film, serum levels of IgG, IgA ,IgM ,C3 and C4;assessed by radial immundiffusion method,Results: Twenty four out of thirty one CML patients treated with the imatinib regimen (those had done FISH study)reached a complete cytogenetic response. Reduction percent were 19.35% for IgG, 16.13% for IgM and 9.68%for IgA, six patients had IgG inferior to normal laboratory range, five patients presented a reduction of IgM andthree patients had IgA lower than normal range. No significant correlation of immunoglobulin levels compared toduration of treatmentConclusion: Imatinib mesylate can induce complete cytogenetic response in a high percent of CML patients. Cytogeneticresponse correlates well with duration of treatment .there is insignificant reduction of immunoglobulins levelspecially IgM. There is disturbance in the serum level of complement components (C3 &C4).There isinsignificant reduction in the absolute count of lymphocytes in correlation with duration of treatment