Background: The BCR-ABL T315I kinase domain mutation is insensitive to dasatinib therapy for Philadelphia-positive acute lymphoid leukemia (Ph + ALL) patients. Resistant T315I clone may be present prior to initiating dasatinib, which could expand under selective pressures during treatment. However, it is also possible that Ph + ALL patients newly acquire the T315I mutation during dasatinib therapy. Despite the potent inhibition of BCR-ABL kinase by dasatinib, little is known about the relationship between dasatinib pharmacokinetics and the emergence of kinase domain mutations in vivo.
Methods: To determine whether plasma dasatinib pharmacokinetics influences the emergence of BCR-ABL mutations, we measured plasma dasatinib levels in 11 Ph + ALL patients undergoing dasatinib monotherapy.
Results: Bone marrow relapse occurred in 5 of the 11 Ph + ALL patients (45%). Importantly, a T315I mutation was detected in 4 of the 5 relapsed patients, despite the absence of BCR-ABL mutations in any patient at baseline. The median plasma concentration at 2 hours (C(2h)), the median plasma maximum concentration (C(max)), and the median area under the observed plasma concentration-time curve from 0 to 4 hours (AUC(0-4)) were all significantly lower in patients with T315I than those without the mutation (C(2h), 22.3 ng/mL vs. 111.6 ng/mL, P = 0.0242; C(max), 43.8 ng/mL vs. 112.4 ng/mL, P = 0.0242; AUC(0-4), 108.3 ng·h/mL vs. 268.3 ng·h/mL, P = 0.0061, respectively).
Conclusions: These data indicate that the emergence of the T315I mutation among Ph + ALL patients treated with dasatinib is, in part, dependent on plasma dasatinib pharmacokinetics. Notably, these data also suggest that newly acquired BCR-ABL mutations may be inhibited by an increased exposure of dasatinib.