These findings suggest that discontinuation of second- or subsequent-line dasatinib after a sustained DMR of ≥ 1 year is feasible, especially for patients with no history of imatinib resistance. In addition, the natural killer cell count was associated with the TFR.

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Summary. We previously demonstrated that interleukin 2 (IL‐2) autocrine/paracrine growth in adult T‐cell leukaemia (ATL) cells was closely correlated with clinical aggressiveness. In the present study, we compared the significance of IL‐15 and IL‐2 in growth of ATL cells and clinical aggressiveness. Thirty‐seven patients with ATL were examined: 19 acute and 18 chronic. Autonomous growth and IL‐2‐ or IL‐15‐responsive growth activities of ATL cells were measured by [3H]‐thymidine incorporation after 24 h cultures in vitro. All of the autonomous, IL‐15‐ and IL‐2‐responsive growth activities of acute‐type cells were higher than those of chronic type (P = 0·04, P = 0·03 and P = 0·02 respectively). IL‐15‐ and IL‐2‐responsive growth activities were highly correlated (P = 0·0001, R2 = 0·837). Enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) showed detectable serum levels of IL‐15 and IL‐2 in 18 out of 19 and 14 out of 17 patients respectively. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) revealed IL‐15 and IL‐2 mRNA expression in 8 out of 11 patients' cells. Anti‐IL‐2 antibody partially inhibited autonomous growth of ATL cells; anti‐IL‐15 antibody was less effective. In situ immunochemistry detected IL‐15 in cells of three patients and was consistent with the results of RT‐PCR. These results suggest that ATL cells grow in an IL‐15 autocrine/paracrine manner and that this growth is related to disease aggressiveness in a manner similar to IL‐2.

We report 2 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia in the chronic phase showing diffusely increased F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake in the bone marrow before treatment. Follow-up FDG positron emission tomography (PET) scans were performed in a patient after cessation of treatment and in the other under treatment. Both FDG PET findings showed reduced FDG uptake in the bone marrow. A series of these FDG PET findings suggest the usefulness of FDG PET for the diagnosis and monitoring of chronic myeloid leukemia after treatment.

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