Biological treatment and chronic myeloid leukemia

Notwithstanding the considerable skepticism that prevailed at the beginning of nineties of the last century to the possible clinical significance of inhibitors of tyrosine kinase (TK), Druker et al. (1998) had developed a compound that inhibited the enzymatic activity of Abl protein and, consequently, increased activity of Bcr-Abl oncoprotein, whose presence is characteristic of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). The TK inhibitor, imatinib mesylate (Glivec) has become the standard first-line therapy for all patients with newly diagnosed CML. Despite its high efficiency, part of patients is not responding to treatment with this preparation or is losing an already achieved response. In this case second-generation or third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) could be applied.. The paper presents an overview of treatment options for CML, focusing on biological therapy with TKIs. (author)