Profiling chronic myeloid leukemia patients reporting intentional and unintentional non-adherence to lifelong therapy with tyrosine kinase inhibitors

The main objective of this study was to outline key characteristics, including health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and symptoms, in 175 chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients reporting intentional or unintentional reasons for not fully adhering to imatinib therapy. There was a significant higher proportion of males in the unintentional group (P = 0.037). Also, in this group patients were on average younger (P = 0.046). Patients reporting intentional reasons had generally a worse HRQOL profile and a higher symptom severity than those who reported unintentional reasons for non-adherence. This study suggests that patients with suboptimal adherence are not a homogenous group, thus generalized approaches to improve medication-taking behaviors are not recommended.