Molecular Response Assessment in Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia; Clinicopathological Retrospective Research

Objective: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a stem cell disease caused by clonal increase of precursor cells. In the studies conducted, it is stated that followup of patients has positive effects on the prognosis. In this study, it is aimed to review the molecular response assessment used in the follow-up of CML patients by sharing the clinical-pathology experience and to review the literature. Materials and Methods: Seventy-six cases who underwent bone marrow biopsy samples assessment in Adnan Menderes University Faculty of Medicine Department of Pathology in 2018-2019 and clinically diagnosed as myeloproliferative neoplasia/ CML, followed by BCR-ABL analysis at the 3rd, 6th and 9th months. Results: Seventy-one (93.4%) of our cases were in chronic phase, 4 were in accelerated phase (5.3%) and 1 (1.3%) was in blastic phase. Major molecular response (MMR) was observed in 31 patients in the 3rd month (40.8%), 42 patients in the 6th month (55.3%) and 51 patients (67.1%) in the 9th month. The mean followup period of the patients was 20.5 months. During this period, uneventful survival was observed in 65 patients according to ELN criteria, death in 5 patients (6.6%) and relapse in 7 patients (7.9%). While the MMR observed in the early period was observed to be related to the patient's life span (p <= 0.05), it was not associated with Conclusions: Achieving the MMR is important for prognosis. The importance of molecular monitoring, which is a more sensitive method for evaluating treatment effectiveness and monitoring the response, is increasing.