Clinical outcome of management of acute myeloid leukemia with idarubicin plus cytarabine

A prospective study was conducted at Department of Clinical Oncology, King Edward Medical College / Mayo Hospital, Lahore from July 2003 to June 2004 to evaluate the effect of Idarubicin plus Cytarabine in chemo naive Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) patients. A total of 15 consecutive patients were enrolled with age group 15-58 years. Patients were classified according to French American British (FAB) classification. Induction therapy with Cytarabine as continuous infusion for 7 days and Idarubicin was given on day 1-3. For assessment of response, all patients were subjected to bone marrow examination fifteen days after completion of Induction chemotherapy. Consolidation Therapy with high dose Cytarabine was given on days 1, 3 and 5. Cytarabine was repeated after 28 days for 4 cycles in patients with complete remission after induction therapy. A remission induction rate of 66.7% was observed. Four patients died because of complications. One patient lost to follow up. Idarubicine and cytarabine is effective r egimen for achieving complete remission in AML Chemo-naive patients.