In patients with CML on imatinib and newly diagnosed breast cancer now requiring radiation therapy, should we hold imatinib?

There's not a lot of data regarding the best course of action in these rare situations. Anecdotally, I've had one CML patient who had been on dasatinib and was diagnosed with breast cancer a year or two after her CML diagnosis. Her local oncologist did hold her TKI while she was receiving radiation ...

I recommend continuing imatinib through the radiation. The time of imatinib is rather short and stopping poses a risk of CML coming back with the fact that molecular remission is iffy.
Kanti Rai

Interesting question and as mentioned, there are not a lot of data to guide us here. There was one small study in desmoid tumors using imatinib with radiation therapy perhaps as a radiosensitizer (Moding et al., PMID 28761389). I would say that if the patient is in a deep remission from CML, holding...