title: Telomere length shortening is associated with treatment-free remission in chronic myeloid leukemia patients.
abstract: We studied telomere length in 32 CML patients who discontinued imatinib after achieving complete molecular remission and 32 age-sex-matched controls. The relative telomere length (RTL) was determined by q-PCR as the telomere to single copy gene (36B4) ratio normalized to a reference sample (K-562 DNA). Age-corrected RTL (acRTL) was also obtained. The 36-month probability of treatment-free remission (TFR) was 59.4 %. TFR patients showed shorter acRTL compared to relapsed (mean ± SD = 0.01 ± 0.14 vs 0.20 ± 0.21; p = 0.01). TFR was significantly higher in CML patients with acRTL ≤0.09 (78.9 vs 30.8 %, p = 0.002). CML stem cells harboring longer telomeres possibly maintain a proliferative potential after treatment discontinuation.
authors.affiliation: Hematology Unit, Department of Medical Sciences, Bone Marrow Transplant Center, R. Binaghi Hospital, University of Cagliari, Ospedale "R. Binaghi", Via Is Guadazzonis, 3, 09126, Cagliari, Italy. giovanni.caocci@unica.it.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6585-5187
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Caocci
authors.affiliation: Hematology Unit, Department of Medical Sciences, Bone Marrow Transplant Center, R. Binaghi Hospital, University of Cagliari, Ospedale "R. Binaghi", Via Is Guadazzonis, 3, 09126, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Marianna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Greco
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Delogu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.|Istituto Nazionale Biostrutture e Biosistemi, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Secchi
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Ospedali Riuniti, Reggio Calabria, Italy.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Martino
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Ospedali Riuniti, Reggio Calabria, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Labate
authors.affiliation: Hematology, S. Eugenio Hospital, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Abruzzese
authors.affiliation: Hematology, S. Eugenio Hospital, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Malgorzata Monika
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Trawinska
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Hematology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Galimberti
authors.affiliation: Hematology Unit, Department of Medical Sciences, Bone Marrow Transplant Center, R. Binaghi Hospital, University of Cagliari, Ospedale "R. Binaghi", Via Is Guadazzonis, 3, 09126, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Orru
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fozza
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Milano Bicocca, Monza, Italy.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gambacorti Passerini
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.|Istituto Nazionale Biostrutture e Biosistemi, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Galimi
authors.affiliation: Hematology Unit, Department of Medical Sciences, Bone Marrow Transplant Center, R. Binaghi Hospital, University of Cagliari, Ospedale "R. Binaghi", Via Is Guadazzonis, 3, 09126, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: La Nasa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D000068877:Imatinib Mesylate / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015464:Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012074:Remission Induction; D016615:Telomere / Q000648:ultrastructure; D059506:Telomere Shortening / Q000235:genetics; D028761:Withholding Treatment
chemical_list: D000068877:Imatinib Mesylate
keywords: Chronic myeloid leukemia; Imatinib; Telomerase; Telomere; Treatment-free remission