Afia Haque, Syed Khalid Shah, Humaira Rahim, Abdul Wahid.
Comparing Imatinib and Nilotinib in the Treatment of Newly Diagnosed Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in patients of Sandeman Provincial Hospital, Quetta, Pakistan.
J Pak Society Int Med Jan ;3(1):36-40.

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of Imatinib and Nilotinib as first-line drug in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia. Methods: The study was conducted at Medicine Unit III, S.P.H, Quetta, from April 2019 to 2020. Study was commenced after taking approval from ethical committee of the institute. Newly diagnosed, treatment naive, chronic myeloid leukemia patients visiting Medical OPD, Emergency and Medicine ward fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Exclusion criteria was strictly followed to control confounder and bias in the study. Patients were randomly divided into two groups, one started on Imatinib and other Nilotinib, were followed up at 3, 6 and 11 months with CBC and molecular response by bcrabl PCR on blood or bone marrow. Informed consent was taken from all the patients prior to the commencement of the study and thpeir information was kept confidential. Results: Of the 149 patients in Imatinib group, 99 showed response to treatment with 36% achieving MMR in 9 to 12 months, while 130 patients on Nilotinib showed drug effectiveness with 52% achieving MMR within 9 to 12 months, mainly at 9 months of treatment. Conclusion: The study endorses that Nilotinib is better than Imatinib in the treatment of CP-CML, and hence can be used as first line therapy

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