Dynamics of mutations in patients with essential thrombocythemia treated with imetelstat

In a phase II study, the telomerase inhibitor imetelstat induced rapid hematologic responses in all patients with essential thrombocythemia who were refractory to or intolerant of prior therapies. Significant molecular responses were achieved within 3-6 months in 81% of patients with phenotypic driver mutations in JAK2, CALR and MPL. Here, we investigated the dynamics of additional somatic mutations in response to imetelstat. At study entry, 50% of patients carried one to five additional mutations in the genes ASXL1, CBL, DNMT3A, EZH2, IDH1, SF3B1, TET2, TP53 and U2AF1. Three patients with baseline mutations also had late-emerging mutations in TP53, IDH1 and TET2. Most clones with additional mutations were responsive to imetelstat and decreased with the driver mutation, including the poor prognostic ASXL1, EZH2 and U2AF1 mutations, while SF3B1 and TP53 mutations were associated with poorer molecular response. Overall, phenotypic driver mutation response was significantly deeper in patients without additional mutations (P=0.04) and correlated with longer duration of response. In conclusion, this detailed molecular analysis of heavily pretreated and partly resistant patients with essential thrombocythemia reveals a high individual patient complexity. Moreover, imetelstat demonstrates potential to inhibit efficiently co -incident mutations occurring in neoplastic clones in patients with essential thrombocythemia. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01243073).

Automated summary

The telomerase inhibitor imetelstat showed rapid hematologic responses in the majority of patients within 3-6 months of treatment. Patients with additional somatic mutations might develop new mutations during treatment, but most still responded positively to imetelstat.