Elevated plasma levels of IL-6 and MCP-1 selectively identify CML patients who better sustain molecular remission after TKI withdrawal

Treatment-free remission (TFR) in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is safe under adequate molecular monitoring, but questions remain regarding which factors may be considered predictive for TFR. Argentina Stop Trial (AST) is a multicenter TFR trial showing that 65% of patients sustain molecular remission, and the prior time in deep molecular response (DMR) was associated with successful TFR. Luminex technology was used to characterize cytokines in plasma samples. Using machine learning algorithms, MCP-1 and IL-6 were identified as novel biomarkers and MCP-1(low)/IL-6(low) patients showed eightfold higher risk of relapse. These findings support the feasibility of TFR for patients in DMR and MCP-1/IL-6 plasma levels are strong predictive biomarkers. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13045-023-01440-6.