Dasatinib and Nilotinib Similarly Efficacious for CML in Chronic Phase

Dasatinib and nilotinib show no significant difference in treatment efficacy for treatment-naive patients with chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase (CML-CP), according to a study published in Cancer.¹

In previous randomized trials, efficacy of dasatinib and nilotinib were separately compared to that of imatinib, though the former 2 were not compared directly. The researchers of the present study evaluated dasatinib against nilotinib via propensity score, in which data from patients on parallel phase 2 trials for either drug were analyzed.

Eighty-seven patients from each trial were matched via propensity scoring; all clinically-relevant responses and survival rates were similar between the 2 groups.

The authors conclude that nilotinib and dasatinib are similarly efficacious for patients with CML-CP, and both are equally recommended as a first-line therapy.

Reference

1. Takahashi K, Kantarjian HM, Yang Y, et al. A propensity score matching analysis of dasatinib and nilotinib as a frontline therapy for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase. Cancer. 2016 Aug 10. doi: 10.1002/cncr.30197 [Epub ahead of print]