No abstract

Forty-four patients with Ph' positive leukemia (36 developing blast crisis after chronic phase and eight presenting in acute leukemia) were classified into subgroups on the basis of reactivity of blasts with an anti-serum made against non-T,non-B acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL+), levels of terminal transferase enzyme (TdT+) and morphology. Positivity with anti-ALL serum was the most sensitive and reliable marker, and TdT was an important aid. The presence of "lymphoid" blasts in blast crisis of CML was related to the response to chemotherapy incorporating Vincristine and Prednisolone (VP). Patients with ALL+ blasts frequently (14 of 15 cases) responded to therapy while 21 of 25 patients who had no ALL+ blasts failed to respond. The clinical course of the ALL+ patients was variable: eight patients remitted with return to the appearances of the chronic phase; four patients demonstrated elimination of the Ph' positive clone with hypoplasia and this was followed by normal (Ph' negative) marrow regeneration in two. Subsequent relapse was of either the ALL+ "lymphoid" or the ALL-myeloid type. A regimen incorporating VP should be the treatment of choice in "lymphoid" blast crisis of CML.Cancer 43~426-434, 1979.

No abstract

Of 47 consecutive patients aged 15-60 years with acute non-myelogenous leukaemia (ANML) (40 acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL); 5 acute Burkitt-like leukaemia (ABLL), 2 acute undifferentiated leukaemia (AUL) treated with a standard chemotherapy protocol (OPAL), 31 achieved complete remission (28/40(70%) of patients with ALL). CNS leukaemia occurred in 4/16 non-remitters, and in 6 patients who achieved complete remission (CR). CNS leukaemia occurred in all 5 patients with acute Burkitt-like leukaemia. 4/28 patients with ALL achieving CR had evidence of CSF involvement on cytocentrifuge examination shortly after CR. The apparent risk of early CNS disease suggests that prophylactic CNS therapy should be given early in the treatment of acute non-myelogenous leukaemia.

Eighty-six consecutive untreated adults with acute myelogenous leukemia were treated with a combination of Adriamycin, vincristine, prednisolone, Cytosine Arabinoside, and BCG. Complete remission was achieved in 39 (45%) patients; these patients were then allocated on an alternate basis to receive BCG and monthly chemotherapy with or without weekly irradiated allogeneic blast cells. The median duration of remission was eight months and was the same for both groups. The median survival of those achieving complete remission was 19 months compared with two months for those not achieving complete remission. Nine patients are still alive without relapse and five of these patients have been disease free for more than three years.