Imatinib in Very Elderly Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in Chronic Phase: A Retrospective Study

Background A large number of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients are treated with imatinib mesylate outside of clinical trials, which may not be representative of common clinical practice. The age of CML patients enrolled within controlled clinical studies is lower with respect to patients included in population-based registries. Patients and Methods To describe the safety and tolerability of imatinib in very elderly CML patients in chronic phase, 211 chronic-phase CML patients aged >75 years were retrospectively analyzed using data collected from 31 institutions in Italy. Results The median age at imatinib start was 78.6 years [interquartile range (IR) 76.3–81.4], median time from diagnosis to imatinib start was 1.2 months (IR 0.5–3.7). The starting dose of imatinib was 400 mg/day in 144 patients (68.2 %), >400 mg/day in 4 patients (2.0 %), and