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Background Stopping tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment has become a realistic and safe objective for patients who have chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Both a sustained deep molecular response (sDMR) and the lack of a molecular recurrence after TKI discontinuation are required to reach a durable treatment‐free remission (TFR). Methods The potential predictive role of BCR‐ABL transcripts in attaining an sDMR and a TFR was analyzed in a strictly consecutive, unselected series of 194 patients who were diagnosed and treated with TKIs at the authors’ center. Results Of 173 fully evaluable patients, 67 (38.7%) had the e13a2 transcript, and 106 (61.3%) had the e14a2 transcript. Complete cytogenetic and major molecular remissions were not affected, whereas the achievement of both a DMR (P = .008) and an sDMR (P = .004) was favored significantly in patients who had the e14a2 transcript. After a median of 68 months, the sDMR rate was 39.6% in those with the e14a2 transcript and 19.4% in those with the e13a2 transcript. In addition to transcript type, both the early achievement of a molecular response and starting treatment with a second‐generation TKI positively affected the attainment of an sDMR in multivariate analysis. The use of a second‐generation TKI as frontline treatment increased the sDMR rate in both transcript types. However, in patients who had the e13a2 transcript, the probability of attaining an sDMR was 37% after 60 months and did not increase further despite continuing therapy. Among 51 of 60 patients who attained an sDMR after discontinuing TKIs, 24 experienced a molecular relapse, but all regained molecular remission after resuming TKI treatment. Again, transcript type influenced TFR maintenance (P = .005), because only 2 patients (3%) with the e13a2 transcript enjoyed a durable TFR compared with 25 (23.5%) of those with the e14a2 transcript. Conclusions The e13a2 transcript hinders the achievement of deep responses and the possibility of stopping TKI treatment in patients with CML.

Thrombosis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in cancer patients. Many clinical factors contribute to the high thrombotic risk of this condition, including the type of malignancy, its disease stage, anticancer therapies, and comorbidities. However, the cancer cell-specific prothrombotic properties together with the host cell inflammatory response are important players in the pathogenesis of the cancer-associated hypercoagulability. Tissue factor (TF) is the most important procoagulant protein expressed by cancer cells, and with other cancer tissue procoagulant properties highly contributes to the procoagulant phenotype of malignant cells. Recent discoveries indicate that oncogenes determine the procoagulant protein expression, including TF, in cancer tissues. In addition, in malignancy, TF is also overexpressed by host normal blood cells triggered by cancer-derived inflammatory stimuli. As a consequence, a subclinical activation of blood coagulation is typically present in cancer patients, as demonstrated by abnormalities of circulating thrombotic biomarkers. The relevance of measuring these biomarkers to determine the patient thrombotic risk level is under active investigation. The goal is to identify the high-risk subgroups to establish more accurate and targeted anticoagulation strategies to prevent thrombosis in cancer patients. Ultimately, the clarification of specific molecular mechanisms triggering blood coagulation in specific cancer types may also indicate alternative ways to inhibit clotting activation in these conditions.

Background Cancer patients present with a hypercoagulable state often associated with poor disease prognosis. Objectives This study aims to evaluate whether thrombin generation (TG), a global coagulation test, may be a useful tool to improve the identification of patients at high risk of early disease recurrence (ie, E‐DR within 2 years) after breast cancer surgery. Patients/Methods A cohort of 522 newly diagnosed patients with surgically resected high‐risk breast cancer were enrolled in the ongoing prospective HYPERCAN study. TG potential was measured in plasma samples collected before starting systemic chemotherapy. Significant predictive hemostatic and clinic‐pathological parameters were identified in the derivation cohort by Cox regression analysis. A risk prognostic score for E‐DR was generated in the derivation and tested in the validation cohort. Results After a median observation period of 3.4 years, DR occurred in 51 patients, 28 of whom were E‐DR. E‐DR subjects presented with the highest TG values as compared to both late‐DR (from 2 to 5 years) and no relapse subjects (P < .01). Multivariate analysis in the derivation cohort identified TG, mastectomy, triple negative and Luminal B HER2‐neg molecular subtypes as significant independent predictors for E‐DR, which were utilized to generate a risk assessment score. In the derivation and validation cohorts, E‐DR rates were 2.3% and 0% in the low‐risk, 10.1% and 6.3% in the intermediate‐risk, and 18.2% and 16.7%, in the high‐risk categories, respectively. Conclusions Inclusion of TG in a risk‐assessment model for E‐DR significantly helps the identification of operated breast cancer patients at high risk of very early relapse.

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