Gene Expression Profiling And Cellularity Of Bone Marrow Cd34+/Lin- Cells Of Patients With Chronic-Phase Chronic Myeloid Leukemia At Diagnosis Vs. 12 Months Of First-Line Nilotinib Treatment

Introduction: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal myeloproliferative disorder with heterogeneous biological and clinical features. The biomolecular mechanisms of CML response to tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKI) are not fully defined. Despite the TKI nilotinib being a very effective drug for the treatment of CML, drug resistance can emerge. In the contest of the REL-PhilosoPhi34 study (EudraCT: 2012-005062-34) on behalf of the Rete Ematologica Lombarda, we undertook gene expression profiling (GEP) of selected bone marrow (BM) CD34+/lin- cells of 30 patients with CP-CML at diagnosis vs. the same patients after 12 months of nilotinib treatment to investigate molecular signatures characterizing both conditions.