Open AccessAnti‐Leukemia Chemotherapy of High‐Risk Myelodysplastic Syndromes
Author(s) -
Tohyama Kaoru,
Tsutani Hiroshi,
Wano Yuji,
Iwasaki Hiromichi,
Fukushima Toshihiro,
Urasaki Yoshimasa,
Kawai Yasukazu,
Nakamura Toru,
Yoshida Yataro,
Ueda Takanori
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
the oncologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.176
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1549-490X
pISSN - 1083-7159
DOI - 10.1634/theoncologist.2-3-160
Subject(s) - medicine , myelodysplastic syndromes , chemotherapy , leukemia , oncology , bone marrow
We evaluated the outcome of anti‐leukemia chemotherapy on 42 patients with the high‐risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS)—refractory anemia with excess of blasts (RAEB), 8 cases; RAEB in transformation (RAEB‐T), 18 cases; chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMMOL), 6 cases; and leukemic transformation of MDS, 10 cases. The median age was 67 (range 20 to 84). As a remission‐induction therapy, 35 patients received low‐dose chemotherapy, such as low‐dose cytarabine infusion, and seven patients received high‐dose combination chemotherapy. The complete remission (CR) rates of the low‐dose chemotherapy group and the high‐dose combination chemotherapy group were 29% and 57%, respectively, and the overall CR rate was 33%. The median survival durations after induction chemotherapy of the CR group (14 cases), the partial remission (PR) group (11 cases), and the non‐remission (NR) group (17 cases) were 19 months, 8 months, and 3 months, respectively. As a post‐remission consolidation chemotherapy, high‐dose combination chemotherapy seemed to be superior to low‐dose chemotherapy judging from the median CR duration (16 months versus 4 months), but a long‐term disease‐free survival is hardly expected, in contrast with results in cases of de novo acute myeloid leukemia.