What are the challenges in 2016 regarding resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors in chronic myeloid leukemia and cancer?

In the past decade, the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has undergone a drastic evolution. The discovery and success of imatinib and second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors have substantially increased the outcome for CML patients. The next step in medical and scientific research is to better understand the malignancy so as to eventually find a cure to eliminate all leukemic cells from patients. One of the key issues is about the resistance of the leukemic stem cells to tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Here, we briefly describe our current studies on CML resistance, and leukemic stem cell modeling and characterization.