Delayed acute pancreatitis induced by nilotinib in a patient with chronic myeloid leukemia attaining sustained complete molecular response

Abstract

Abstract Advent of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) have revolutionized therapy of chronic myeloid leukemia. Imatinib was the first agent utilized in the therapy of CML. Nilotinib, a second generation TKI, results in an increase in number of patients achieving major molecular response at an earlier time point. Asymptomatic elevations in pancreatic enzyme is common and acute pancreatitis within weeks to months from start of therapy has been observed. Delayed onset pancreatitis has not been reported. We report a case of delayed onset pancreatitis in a patient with sustained complete molecular response. On account of the deep response, we were able to avoid starting alternate tyrosine kinase inhibitors that could also result in pancreatitis as a class effect.

Keywords

• CML leukemia
• CML MDR
• therapy