DasatinibA Review of its Use in the Treatment of Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia and Philadelphia Chromosome-Positive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia

Dasatinib (Sprycel®) is an orally administered small molecule inhibitor of multiple tyrosine kinases, including BCR-ABL and SRC family kinases, which is indicated for the treatment of adults with newly diagnosed chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), CML (chronic-, accelerated-or blast-phase) with resistance or intolerance to prior therapy, including imatinib, or Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) with resistance or intolerance to prior therapy. Dasatinib is ≈325-fold more active than imatinib in inhibiting wild-type ABL kinase in vitro and is active against a wide variety of imatinib-resistant BCR-ABL mutants, except for T315I. This article reviews the efficacy and tolerability of dasatinib in the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed chronic-phase CML or imatinib-resistant or -intolerant CML or Ph+ ALL, as well as summarizing its pharmacological properties.