Efficacy and safety of induction chemotherapy with daunorubicin or idarubicin in the treatment of an adult with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Background: Anthracyclines are dispensable components of chemotherapy of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Objective: To analyze the efficacy and safety of induction with idarubicin (IDA) or liposoma daunorubicin (L-DNR) in treatment of adults with high-risk ALL (HR-ALL) (presence of mixed lineage leukemia gene [ MLL] rearrangements, t[1;19], or prednisone poor response). Methods: Among 58 enrolled patients, 29 cases were defined as the IDA group and the other 29 patients were put into the L-DNR group. Both overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were estimated and overall response rate (ORR) was compared between the groups. Results: The L-DNR group’s OS and PFS were insignificantly higher than in the IDA group ( P=0.261 and P=0.247). Although not significantly different, the ORR of adults with HR-ALL receiving L-DNR regimens was also higher than in the IDA group ( P=0.085). Comprehensive cytogenetic analysis revealed that patients harboring MLL rearrangement, E2A-PBX1, and P53 mutation had poorer prognosis than others. All 58 patients experienced hematologic response in this study; however, the length of hematologic response in the IDA group was significantly longer than in the L-DNR group ( P=0.005). The incidence of bleeding and infection was without significant difference between the groups (both P>0.05). Conclusion: L-DNR proved to be an effective drug within a multiagent approach, which shows a favorable overall profile, as well as similar adverse events when compared with IDA in HR-ALL. Patients with E2A-PBX1 are much more sensitive to L-DNR than IDA. Despite some progress made, outcomes in MLL rearrangement or P53 mutation carriers remain unsatisfactory, and intensive treatment will be critical.