Efficacy of dasatinib in conjunction with alpha-interferon for the treatment of imatinib-resistant and dasatinib-resistant Ph+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Despite notable progresses in the past few years, and, in particular, the advent of first- and second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), the treatment of adult BCR-ABL1 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients still remains an unsolved problem. In fact, though chemotherapy (CHT) and TKI are effective for inducing complete remission (CR), durable responses and possibly cure seem be achievable, at present, with stem cell transplantation only. We describe a unique case of BCR-ABL1þ ALL, relapsed after CHT, autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT), imatinib and dasatinib courses, successfully treated with a combination of dasatinib and a-interferon (a-IFN)