[Adherence and toxicity to tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy in chronic myeloid leukemia]

To analyze adherence and toxicity of tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKIs) therapy in patients diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).

A 18-months retrospective observational study (January 2011-June 2012) which included all patients diagnosed with CML in a secondary hospital (550 beds) and were treated with imatinib, dasatinib or nilotinib. It was collected the following variables: sex, age at diagnosis, years of treatment and side effects. Adherence was evaluated using SMAQ questionnaire and recording dispensations.

25 patients were included and all but two (92.0%) experienced side effects to imatinib,83.3% to dasatinib and 66.7% to nilotinib. The average adherence was 71.3%. There was identified as possible parameters of lack of adherence the female patients (55.6 % vs. 66.7%, p = 0.586), older than 50 (55.6 % vs. 83.3 %, p = 0.125), more than four years of treatment (70.0 % vs. 57.1 %, p = 0.521) and the presence of certain side effects (gastrointestinal disorders and musculoeskeletal pain).

Almost one third of patients were considered nonadherent to therapy. Although the sample size did not allow us to establish a statistically significant relation between adherence and the variables analyzed, the clinical relevance of these results show the importance of future studies with larger populations to confirm the trends established in this study.