Pregnancy outcome in chronic myeloid leukemia patients on imatinib therapy

Imatinib is a first-line therapy to treat chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients.

We selected 22 CML cases of pregnancies and reported 9 accidental and 13 planned pregnancies that were on imatinib therapy. Willing female patients remaining in complete hematological, cytogenetic and major molecular responses for at least 2 years planned for pregnancy and were advised to stop imatinib for 1 month prior to conception and 3 months after conception (first trimester). Willing male patients stopped therapy 1 month prior to conception of their wives. In unplanned cases, all patients were in exposure to imatinib during conception. Twenty-two pregnancies resulted in seven male children and eight female children. There were three spontaneous abortions and four elective abortions along with one case of hypospadia and another one of mild hydrocephalus.

We may suggest that planned pregnancy during therapy may be encouraged but imatinib therapy in unplanned pregnancy can cause spontaneous abortion or congenital anomaly.