Table 1 Characteristics of 32 CML patients according to treatment-free remission (TFR) or molecular relapse after imatinib discontinuation

Age at diagnosis (mean, range)

74 (47–88)

56 (37–77)

0.004

Leukocytes at diagnosis ×10³/uL (mean, range)

50.47 (8.15–221)

69 (19.8–263)

ns

Platelets at diagnosis ×10³/uL (mean, range)

472 (178–918)

357 (171–695)

ns

Months to CMR (median, range)

28 (3–88)

30 (6–93)

ns

Months of TKIs (median, range)

86 (24–127)

84 (45–143)

ns

Months of TKIs >60 (no., %)

13

68.4

12

92.3

ns

Male gender (no., %)

16

84.2

8

61.5

ns

Sokal risk (no., %)

 Low

6

31.6

8

61.5

ns

 Intermediate

10

52.6

3

23.1

ns

 High

3

15.8

2

15.4

ns

First-line TKI treatment (no., %)

11

57.9

11

84.6

ns

Previous IFN treatment (no., %)

8

42.1

2

15.4

ns

Imatinib first-line TKI treatment (no., %)

19

100

13

100

ns

Nilotinib second-line TKI treatment (no., %)

1

5.3

1

7.7

ns

Age-corrected relative telomere length (mean ± SD)

0.01 ± 0.14

0.20 ± 0.21

0.01