Dasatinib is a dual tyrosine kinase inhibitor active against ABL and Src family kinases, and is approved for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients in chronic, accelerated, or blast phase with resistance or intolerance to imatinib therapy, for newly diagnosed chronic phase patients, and for adults with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia who have become resistant to or intolerant of other treatments. This review presents clinical data regarding different trials involving CML patients in different phases of the disease. Six-year follow-up of the Phase III dose-optimization study are described, showing overall survival of 71% with the current approved dose of 100 mg once daily. Three-year results of the randomized Phase III DASISION (DASatinib vs Imatinib Study In Treatment-Naïve CML patients) trial confirmed that dasatinib 100 mg once daily was superior to standard-dose imatinib in terms of achieving a faster and deeper molecular response, with similar activity regardless of baseline prognostic score.
Keywords: acute lymphoblastic leukemia; chronic myeloid leukemia; dasatinib.