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Post-remission options were compared in a population of 262 relapsing and refractory acute myeloid leukemia patients achieving complete remission (CR) after the same re-induction according to etoposide - mitoxantrone - cytarabine (EMA) trials. The selection of post-remission therapy depended on trial recommendations, age, performance status, and availability of an HLA-identical sibling. One hundred and thirty patients received chemotherapy consolidation courses, 50 received autologous stem cell transplantation (SCT), and 43 underwent allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT), while 39 did not receive any additional therapy. The preliminary analysis identified 3 favorable prognostic factors correlated with event-free survival (EFS): M3 subtype, previous CR duration > 1 year, and transplantation. Three year EFS was 68 vs. 23% with autologous SCT and allogeneic BMT in M3 patients and, respectively, 41 vs. 20% in non-M3 patients. Three year probabilities of treatment-related mortality were 11 and 47%, respectively. A statistical model was conceived with adjustment on prognostic factors and post-remission option. In the multivariate analysis, autologous SCT appeared significantly better than allogeneic BMT (P < 0.01) or chemotherapy (P = 0.001), while allogeneic BMT was not statistically different than chemotherapy. This indicates a high treatment-related toxicity with allogeneic BMT in patients re-induced by highly intensive chemotherapy, and therefore a tendency for a better outcome with autologous SCT as post-remission treatment in those patients.

Purpose: To confirm and extend encouraging preliminary results of timed sequential chemotherapy (TSC) in patients with previously treated acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)., Patients and Methods: We report the results of the regimen of mitoxantrone on days 1 to 3, etoposide on days 8 to 10, and cytarabine on days 1 to 3 and 8 to 10 (EMA) in 133 patients, with a median follow-up of 40 months., Results: Sixty percent of patients, with a 95% confidence interval (CI) ranging from 51% to 68%, achieved complete remission (CR), including 44% (CI, 32% to 57%) of refractory patients and 76% (CI, 64% to 86%) of late first-relapse patients (P = .0002). Twenty-nine percent of patients did not respond to therapy, and 11% died from toxicity. Median duration of neutropenia and thrombocytopenia was 31 days and 29 days, respectively. Severe nonhematologic toxicity included sepsis in 54% of patients and mucositis in 23%. Postinduction therapy included a second course of EMA in 27 patients, maintenance in 10, autologous bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in 12, and allogeneic BMT in 13. Median survival of patients who did not have transplantation performed is 7 months, with 11% (CI, 4% to 18%) survival at 5 years. Median disease-free survival (DFS) is 8 months with 20% (CI, 8% to 32%) DFS at 5 years. Twenty-eight percent (CI, 15% to 44%) of nontransplanted patients who achieved CR had an inversion of CR duration. Previous refractoriness was the main factor associated with poor prognosis for CR achievement, DFS, and survival., Conclusion: These results confirm initial reports on TSC and show that approximately 20% of patients with first relapse after therapy can enjoy prolonged DFS using chemotherapy only.

The level of blast cells in peripheral blood in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) varies in individual patients. The bone marrow egress of hematopoietic cells is an unclear phenomenon in which cell deformability and cytoadhesion to the extracellular matrix are involved. One component of deformability is the membrane fluidity. Using fluorescence polarization, we have studied the fluidity of blast cell membranes from 22 AML patients. This membrane was found to be highly fluid and a statistically significant correlation was found between the increase in membrane fluidity and the number of blast cells in the blood. Studying interaction between blast cells and several components of bone marrow stroma, we found adhesion to fibronectin and fibroblastic extracellular matrix. Adhesion to the extracellular matrix was inversally correlated to the level of blast cells in the blood. The observed increase in membrane fluidity and reduction of adhesion to bone marrow stroma may result in an increase of blast cells egress in AML.

A patient with Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome positive chronic myelocytic leukemia is described who also developed an abnormality of chromosome #3, i.e., t(3;20)(p21;p13), in blast crisis. This abnormality may be connected with the advent thrombocythemia. The disease was a thrombopenia in the initial phase.

A case of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in a young woman with a new variant Ph1-translocation--i.e., t(8;22) (q24;q12)--is described. The clinical and biological aspects of the disease did not seem to differ from those of the usual cases of CML.