Pregnancy & Gleevec

[Guest guest]

Dear Ray,

I think Tracey has answered your question, but I do know of several people

who successfully brought healthy babies to term. The men should check with

their doctors how long to stay off Gleevec before attempting to impregnate their

wives. The women of course, is a whole different story. There have been quite a

few women with CML who were brave enough to go for it, but they had to stay off

Gleevec the entire pregnancy. Some have had more than 1 pregnancy.

The researchers present the experience accumulated to date in 19

pregnancies involving 18 patients (10 women and 8 men) with CML who conceived

while receiving imatinib -- the standard therapy for CML. All of the women

stopped imatinib treatment immediately after learning they were pregnant. Three

of the 19 pregnancies ended in spontaneous abortions (16%), including 2 (20%) of

the 10 pregnancies in female patients. " This rate is somewhat higher than the

reported rate of spontaneous abortions in the general population of

approximately 10% to 15%, " the team notes. " Thus, it is possible that the brief

exposure to imatinib may slightly increase the risk of spontaneous abortions. "

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/528742

You might also want to view and listen to this about 2nd line therapies,

although it has nothing to do with pregnancy:

Myelogenous Leukemia (Slides with Audio) CME/CNCCN 2nd Annual Congress:

Hematologic Malignancies - Update on Primary Therapy, Second-Line Therapy, and

New Agents for Chronic E Jerald P. Radich, MD

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/564100

Wishing you well, always,

Lottie