Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia with Early Intensive Induction Therapy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3109/02841868809093582Keywords:
Acute myeloid leukaemia, induction therapy, maintenance therapy, daunorubicin, cytarabine, thioguanine, etoposide, CCNU, randomised trialAbstract
Patients with primary acute myeloid leukaemia were treated with induction therapy consisting of daunorubicin 50 mg/m2 (days 1 and 2) and continuous cytosine arabinoside 400 mg/m2 (days 1–5) with a 7–10-day gap between courses. Consolidation therapy consisted of one further similar course and a final course of cytosine 1 g/m2 infusion (days 1–5). Patients were randomised to receive no further treatment or monthly maintenance therapy consisting of thioguanine 100 mg/m2 twice daily and etoposide 100 mg/m2 twice daily (days 1–5) alternating with CCNU 50 mg/m2 once to a total of 6 courses. 64 patients entered the study; median age was 54 years (range 18–74 years) and 51 patients entered complete remission (79.7%). Thirty-two patients completed consolidation and were randomised between maintenance therapy (n=16) and no treatment (n=16). 21 patients have relapsed with neither remission duration nor relapse rate being affected by maintenance therapy.
