Anyone taking Tasigna may be interested in this

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My Doctor shared this with me today.

I also wanted to share with you the updated exciting information regarding the

dosing of tasigna. Based on a late breaking abstract presented at American

Society of Hematology (ASH) in Dec 2009 regarding an international phase 3

multicenter randomized study conducted by Saglio and his colleagues (abstract

LBA1) comparing nilotinib (Tasigna) 600 mg po per day vs 800 mg per day vs

imatinib (Gleevec) 400 mg daily as 1st line for t xt of chronic phase CML with a

follow up of 5 years. There were a total of 846 patients involved in the study.

The study showed that nilotinib with both doses is superior to imatinib with

significantly higher rates of major molecular response and complete cytogenetic

response. There was no difference in terms of efficacy bet nilotinib 600 mg/day

vs 800 mg/day, but more Incidence of adverse events leading to discontinuation

was lowest in the nilotinib 600 mg/day group.

In other words, the reduced dose of nilotinib that you have been on, 600 mg per

day (due to the side effects that you experienced in the beginning of therapy)

should be as effective as the currently FDA approved dose of 800mg/day. All the

quantitative PCRs that you've had so far have also revealed major response.

Although I was never on 800mg. she was wrong there. But I did start with 400mg

and quickly went to 600mg and reached PCRU within 2 weeks.

Sharon T