Interestingly, our findings demonstrated that while the BCR-ABL1 titers are significantly down-regulated in the patients undergoing imatinib therapy (P = 0.011), the NOV methylation patterns remained intact (P = 0.978), suggesting that the methylation status of the NOV gene might be an independent risk factor in the CML patients which is not influenced by the BCR-ABL1 downstream events. Here, ABL1 is linked to chronic myelogenous leukemia, BCR-ABL1 positive.