Imatinib combined with mitoxantrone/etoposide and cytarabine is an effective induction therapy for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia in myeloid blast crisis.

BACKGROUND Despite advances in drug therapy and allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT), the prognosis of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in blast crisis remains poor. Imatinib has demonstrated synergistic effects in vitro with mitoxantrone, etoposide, and cytarabine. METHODS A Phase I/II trial was performed in patients with CML myeloid blast crisis. Patients were treated with imatinib + mitoxantrone/etoposide in four cohorts: mitoxantrone 10 mg/m2/day and etoposide 100 mg/m2/day for 2 or 3 consecutive days and imatinib 600 mg/day from Day 15 (cohorts 1 and 2) or from Day 1 (cohorts 3 and 4). After hematologic reconstitution after the cytopenic phase, cytarabine was giv…