Introduction

This supplement to The ASCO Post highlights the proceedings of a satellite symposium that was presented as a case-based roundtable discussion titled, Monitoring, Treatment Resistance, and Treatment Failure in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: Breaking Barriers to Improved Outcomes and Looking Forward to a Cure, and moderated by Timothy Hughes, MD, MBBS, of the Centre for Cancer Biology, Adelaide, South Australia. Dr. Hughes was joined by two distinguished faculty members, John Goldman, DM, FRCP, FRCPath, FMedSci, of Imperial College London, and Jorge Cortes, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. The event was held in conjunction with the European School of Haematology (ESH)–International Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Foundation (iCMLf) 14th International Conference on Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: Biology and Therapy, on the morning of September 21, 2012, in Baltimore.

The goal of the satellite symposium was to assess current clinical trial findings and translate these into implications for practice. Issues discussed included the role of cytogenetic and molecular monitoring, defining responses, recognition of resistance, and treatment failure and its underlying mechanisms. Also discussed were treatment interventions with available and emerging therapies and strategies, including the recently FDA-approved tyrosine kinase inhibitor bosutinib (Bosulif) and protein translation inhibitor omacetaxine (Synribo), as well as the third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor ponatinib, which has been submitted for FDA review. Finally, the issue of defining a “functional” or  “operational” cure for chronic myeloid leukemia was discussed along with approaches to potentially realize this goal in practice. ■