title: Follow-up of the tumor load in patients with de novo chronic myeloid leukemia and in complete cytogenetic remission treated with imatinib in Colombia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the hematological, cytogenetic, and molecular responses in Colombian patients with CML chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) treated with imatinib.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two groups of patients, one with the novo diagnostic and another in state of complete cytogenetic remission were followed for 12 months with quantitative PCR evaluations every three months and with chromosomal analysis every 6 months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The group with the novo diagnosis showed 50% of complete cytogenetic remission at 12 months while the other 50% were considered to have primary resistance. Respect the molecular analysis, 10.5% of the patients reached undetectable BCR-ABL transcripts at 12 months. In the complete cytogenetic remission group, 10.6% lost the state of complete cytogenetic remission at 12 months, 50% reached undetectable BCR-ABL transcripts but 10% showed levels higher than 10%, which in our standardization was equal to no molecular response.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite having received the conventional dosages of 400 mg/day of imatinib, the cytogenetic and molecular responses obtained in our group of Colombian patients with CML, were lower than those in other international studies.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Colombiano de Genética y Oncologia Molecular E-mail: incogem@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Gonzalo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guevara
authors.affiliation: Oncologos de Occidente, Armenia, Colombia. E-mail: jaimegonzalezdiaz@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Jaime A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: González
authors.affiliation: Oncologos de Occidente, Manizales, Colombia.
authors.forename: Diego E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Lopera
authors.affiliation: Instituto Medico de Alta Tecnologia (IMAT), Monteria, Colombia. E-mail: Manuel101@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: González
authors.affiliation: Clinica Vida, Medellin, Colombia E-mail: isaavedra@une.net.co.
authors.forename: José D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Saavedra
authors.affiliation: Hospital Militar Central, Bogota, Colombia. E-mail: lobatonjf@yahoo.es.
authors.forename: José Fernando
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Lobaton
authors.affiliation: Oncologos Asociados de Imbanaco, Cali, Colombia. E-mail: jorgeduque@telesat.com.co.
authors.forename: Jorge Enrique
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Duque
keywords: BCR-ABL; Philadelphia chromosome; imatinib; minimal residual disease