Abstract

 Background and Objectives

  Chronic myelogenesis leukemia (CML) is a chronic myeloproliferative disorder resulting from a specific mutation in a pluripotent stem cell. The association of philadelphia chromosome with this disorder was described in 1973. Subsequently, the BCR-ABL fusion gene and its product which is a tyrosin kinase inhibiting apoptosis were introduced. The treatment of choice for these patients is BMT as well as the new molecular treatment of imatinib mesylate. The present study was designed in order to compare the rate of expression of the BCR-ABL gene in patients who had undergone treatment by bone marrow transplantation with those treated by imatimib.

  Materials and Methods

  Expression of BCR-ABL gene was measured in 34 patients 17 patients were treated with BMT and 17 with imatinib mesylate using quantitative PCR on a light cycler instrument.

 Results

  The results obtained in this preliminary study demonstrates that rate of gene expression in patients treated with imatinib mesylate for more than 8 months was similar to that found in patients treated with BMT who were in relatively stable conditions.

 Conclusions

  This finding may be an indication that imatinib mesylate as a molecular inhibitor can have the same effect as BMT but with less adverse effects. Clearly, definite conclusions require more extensive studies on larger number of patients.

 Key words: Gleevec^®, Imatinib Mesylate, CML, BCR-ABL, Bone Marrow Transplantation, CML