Nilotinib Plus Pegylated Interferon-α2b in CML

The purpose of this trial is to assess the effect of switching CML patients, who have been treated with imatinib ≥ 2 years and who have stable detectable molecular residual disease between 0.01-1.0% (IS), to the combination of Nilotinib and PegIFN, in terms of the proportion of patients who achieve confirmed MR4.0.

Study phase: Phase II. Patient population: Patients with suboptimal molecular response or stable detectable molecular residual disease after ≥ 2 years of treatment with imatinib (i.e. BCR ABL level between 0.01% and 1% IS). Study objective: To assess the effect of switching CML patients, who have been treated with imatinib ≥ 2 years and who have stable detectable molecular residual disease between 0.01-1.0% (IS), to the combination of Nilotinib and PegIFN, in terms of the proportion of patients who achieve confirmed MR4.0. Study design: Single arm, open label, multicenter study to assess the efficacy, safety and tolerability of nilotinib 300 mg BID, alone and in combination with PegIFN 25 - 40 μg/week in patients not in CMR. Patients will be treated with nilotinib 300 mg BID at the beginning of the study to establish the tolerability before adding PegIFN. Combination treatment will be continued until Month 12, which is followed by monotherapy phase of nilotinib 300 mg BID. Overall study duration for the individual patient is 24 months.