Treatment of Refractory Acute Leukaemia With High Dose Cytosine Arabinoside

Twenty-six patients with acute leukaemia and 14 with high-grade lymphoma received cytosine arabinoside (ara-C) at a twice daily dose of 2 g/m2 administered as a 3-h infusion. Thirty-four patients received 12 doses and six electively received four doses only. Complete remission was achieved in six of seven patients with acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML), one of two evaluable patients with blast crisis of chronic myeloid leukaemia and three of eight patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Three further patients with ALL had only minimal bone marrow infiltration after one cycle, toxicity precluding administration of a second. Three patients with AML who received four doses only showed no evidence of response. Four of 14 patients with lymphoma who received 12 doses, entered complete remission. Five additional patients died with minimal residual disease whilst severely neutropenic. A complete and a partial response were seen in two patients with immunoblastic and centrocytic lymphoma respectively who received four doses. These results confirm the activity of high-dose ara-C in patients with AML and suggest that it may also be a potentially useful agent in ALL and high-grade lymphoma, especially as the incidence of CNS toxicity is lower than that reported at higher doses.

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Toxicity of sequential high-dose ARA-C asparaginase treatment in childhood poor risk leukemia

Grümayer

Schmidmeier

Panzer

et al. 1986

Blut

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Seventeen children and two adolescents, aged 6 months to 20 9/12 years, with poor risk leukemia were treated with a total of 38 sequential high-dose ARA-C-Asparaginase courses (HIDAC-ASNase). Each course was followed by profound myelosuppression. Fever occurred in 13.2% and infectious complications in 7.9% of courses. Other side effects were vomiting (81.6%), drug fever (55.3%), mucositis and diarrhoea (28.9%), mild hepatotoxicity (26.3%), exanthemas (18.4%), conjunctivitis (15.8%), local ASNase hypersensitivity (7.9%), athropathy (5.3%). One patient developed generalized seizures followed by coma and death. The possible association between ARA-C, the CNS symptoms and death could neither be demonstrated nor excluded. Except for the possible ARA-C related CNS toxicity, toxic effects were reversible. We consider this treatment a tolerable chemotherapeutic contribution in childhood.

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Treatment of Refractory Acute Leukaemia With High Dose Cytosine Arabinoside

Cited by 11 publications

References 2 publications

Drug Disposition and Pharmacology

Drug Disposition and Pharmacology

High-dose cytosine arabinoside: response to therapy in acute leukaemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Toxicity of sequential high-dose ARA-C asparaginase treatment in childhood poor risk leukemia

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