Nilotinib With Chemotherapy for the Treatment of Philadelphia Chromosome Positive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Status:
Terminated
Trial end date:
2015-07-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and positivity for the breakpoint cluster
region-Abelson murine leukemia (BCR-ABL) protein or the Philadelphia chromosome have a poor
prognosis with standard chemotherapy. The prognosis seemed to improve following the adition
of imatinibe, a BCR-ABL inhibitor, to the treatment but still a substantial amount of
patients relapse or progress during treatment.
Nilotinib is a BCR-ABL inhibitor more potent than imatinib. It has been shown to be effective
against most of the cells that bear mutations of the BCR-ABL protein leading to resistance to
imatinibe.
The investigators' hypothesis is that the addition of nilotinib to a standard chemotherapy
for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) will translate into more rapid BCR-ABL reduction and
effectiveness against imatinib-resistant clones leading to less relapses and better survival.