A drug used to treat certain types of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). It is used in patients who have not gotten better after treatment with other anticancer drugs or who are not able to take imatinib mesylate. It is also being studied in the treatment of other types of cancer. Nilotinib blocks a protein called BCR/ABL which is made in CML cells that contain the Philadelphia chromosome (an abnormal chromosome 22 that has part of chromosome 9 attached). It is a type of tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Also called Tasigna.