Analysis of Molecular Data and the Emergence of Mutations for Chronic-Phase Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML-CP) Patients Treated with Dasatinib After Imatinib Failure.

Abstract 3282

Poster Board III-1

The kinase inhibitor dasatinib has demonstrated efficacy in patients with CML-CP who fail imatinib due to resistance or intolerance. Imatinib failure is often associated with the acquisition of resistant mutations within BCR-ABL. Failure of dasatinib is associated with a limited spectrum of mutations, which are T315I/A, V299L, and F317L/I/V, suggesting these mutations are dasatinib resistant (DR). Only a fraction of patients with T315I respond to dasatinib, most patients with F317L have hematologic responses but few have cytogenetic responses, and V299L is uncommon in imatinib-resistant patients but is mostly seen after dasatinib failure. In vitro data suggests Q252H and E255K/V also confer a degree of dasatinib resistance. However, their clinical association with dasatinib resistance or inferior response is unclear. This retrospective analysis seeks to determine if the mutation status at the start of dasatinib impacts the initial molecular response, and to examine the type of mutations lost and gained during therapy. To assess the significance of intermediate sensitivity (DI) mutations (Q252H and E255K/V), BCR-ABL levels were measured against the International Scale (IS), and mutation status was assayed at initiation of dasatinib (baseline), at progression, or study termination or completion (progression/completion). Data were taken from 479 patients with CML-CP treated with dasatinib 70 mg twice daily, after imatinib failure for the phase II START-C or -R studies. Patients were grouped according to their baseline mutation status: DR, DI, dasatinib sensitive (DS, all other mutations not DR or DI), and no mutations. Patients with more than one mutation at baseline that qualified for more than one grouping were rare, and classified according to the most resistant mutation. By 6 months of dasatinib therapy, patients with DR mutations at baseline had the highest levels of BCR-ABL transcripts (Table 1). By comparison, those with DI, DS, or no mutations had a reduced proportion with high transcript levels. In addition, no patients with DR at baseline achieved a reduction of BCR-ABL by 6 months to IS ratio < 1, whereas significant reductions were identified in patients with DI, DS, or no mutations. A subset of 267 patients had mutation analysis performed at progression/completion. Of these, 115 had mutations at baseline and 152 had no mutations. The patients with baseline imatinib resistance were more likely than those with imatinib intolerance to acquire new mutations. Of the resistant patients with no mutations at baseline, 7% (9/124) developed new mutations and the majority (7/9) was DR. Among resistant patients with baseline mutations, 23% (26/112) had new mutations and the majority was DR (20/26). Although 36 patients gained new mutations (including 16 T315I/A, 8 F317L, and 6 V299L), many baseline mutations were no longer detectable at progression/completion. DS mutations were lost in 68/102 patients. In total, 76 patients had detectable mutations at progression/completion, with 51% (39/76) having DR mutations but only 5% (4/76) with DI mutations. Patients with baseline DR mutations were more likely to retain their DR mutations (11/13). Of 8 patients with DI mutations at baseline, only 3 retained their DI mutations and 3 gained DR mutations. Of 94 patients with only DS mutations at baseline, 36 (38%) retained their DS mutations, and 17 (18%) developed DR mutations. Patients with high levels of BCR-ABL at 3 months had the highest incidence of new DR mutations at progression/completion (18/145 evaluable patients; 12%) compared to patients with lower levels (5/79; 6%). In conclusion, the development of new mutations during second-line dasatinib is rare (36/267). Patients who harbored DI mutations at baseline were also rare, and an expanded prospective analysis of dasatinib efficacy in this cohort may be necessary to clarify their significance. However, from the current analysis there is no compelling clinical evidence to suggest that these patients have an inferior molecular response. Relative to DR mutations, the DI mutations (Q252H and E255K/V) were rarely present at progression/completion.