Evaluation of the approaches of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia on treatment free remission

Although lifelong treatment with Tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) is currently recommended in Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients, lifelong drug use is associated with many difficulties. Therefore, the lifelong treatment approach has started to be questioned and treatment-free remission has become one of the treatment targets in CML studies conducted. In order to apply the results of treatment-free remission studies in real life, the patient's approach to this issue is very important. In our study, it was aimed to evaluate the approaches of CML patients followed in our center regarding treatment free remision. The study was a questionnaire study and 109 patients aged 18 years and older, who were followed up with a diagnosis of chronic phase CML in Eskişehir Osmangazi University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Hematology and using a TKI for at least 3 months were included. Since quality of life is thought to be effective in decisions about treatment free remission, EORTC QLQ C30 scale was also administered to patients simultaneously. The mean age of the patients who participated in the study was 56.12±14.62 years and the mean duration of CML diagnosis at the time of the survey was 8.9±6.3 years. Of the patients who participated in the survey, 53 (48.6%) were female and 56 (51.4%) were male. It was observed that most of the patients tended to continue the treatment, but they might consider discontinuing the drug if deemed appropriate by their physician. The most common reasons given by those who did not want to continue TKI treatment were drug side effects and pregnancy plan. The risk of disease recurrence was the most common reason for the decision to continue treatment. It was observed that the increased frequency of follow-up after discontinuation of TKI treatment affected the decision in half of the patients. Key Words: Chronic myeloid leukemia, tyrosine kinase inhibitor, treatment-free remission, quality of life