High-dose cytosine arabinoside therapy for refractory leukemia

Blood ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
RH Herzig ◽  
SN Wolff ◽  
HM Lazarus ◽  
GL Phillips ◽  
C Karanes ◽  
...  

Abstract Fifty-seven patients with refractory acute leukemia were treated with high-dose cytosine arabinoside to establish the maximum tolerated dose and duration and to determine the antileukemic activity. The maximum tolerated regimen was found to be 3 g/sq m every 12 hr for 6 days. At this dose, nonhematologic toxicity was limited to conjunctivitis in approximately half of the patients, and liver toxicity (transient elevations in transaminase, alkaline phosphatase, or bilirubin) was frequently observed, but neither was dose-limiting. Extending the duration of treatment to 8 days resulted in excessive diarrhea and skin toxicity (painful erythema with bullae), while increasing the dose to 4.5 g/sq m q. 12 hr for 6 days resulted in severe cerebellar toxicity. Myelosuppression was severe, but was not related to the intensity of treatment; granulocyte recovery occurred a median of 28 days (range 22- 40 days) after initiating therapy, and platelet recovery occurred after a median of 25 days (range 16–41 days). Antileukemic activity was evaluable in the 46 patients who survived at least 3 wk. Complete remissions were obtained in 1 of 6 patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in accelerated phase and 1 of 3 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients. A more detailed analysis of response was possible for the 37 evaluable patients with acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia: 70% of these patients responded, with 51% complete remissions. The median unmaintained response was 4 mo (range 2–26+ mo). The complete response rate was higher in patients who received at least 12 doses of high-dose cytosine arabinoside compared to shorter regimens [17/28 (61%) versus 2/9 (22%), p less than 0.05]. Resistance to cytosine arabinoside in conventional doses was documented in 11 patients, 5 of whom responded (2 complete remissions) to high-dose regimens. We conclude that high-dose cytosine arabinoside in the maximally tolerated regimen of 3 g/sq m every 12 hr for 6 days has substantial antileukemic activity in patients refractory to standard therapy. Durable unmaintained remissions can be achieved, even in patients who fail to respond to cytosine arabinoside in conventional doses.

Blood ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
RH Herzig ◽  
SN Wolff ◽  
HM Lazarus ◽  
GL Phillips ◽  
C Karanes ◽  
...  

Fifty-seven patients with refractory acute leukemia were treated with high-dose cytosine arabinoside to establish the maximum tolerated dose and duration and to determine the antileukemic activity. The maximum tolerated regimen was found to be 3 g/sq m every 12 hr for 6 days. At this dose, nonhematologic toxicity was limited to conjunctivitis in approximately half of the patients, and liver toxicity (transient elevations in transaminase, alkaline phosphatase, or bilirubin) was frequently observed, but neither was dose-limiting. Extending the duration of treatment to 8 days resulted in excessive diarrhea and skin toxicity (painful erythema with bullae), while increasing the dose to 4.5 g/sq m q. 12 hr for 6 days resulted in severe cerebellar toxicity. Myelosuppression was severe, but was not related to the intensity of treatment; granulocyte recovery occurred a median of 28 days (range 22- 40 days) after initiating therapy, and platelet recovery occurred after a median of 25 days (range 16–41 days). Antileukemic activity was evaluable in the 46 patients who survived at least 3 wk. Complete remissions were obtained in 1 of 6 patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in accelerated phase and 1 of 3 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients. A more detailed analysis of response was possible for the 37 evaluable patients with acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia: 70% of these patients responded, with 51% complete remissions. The median unmaintained response was 4 mo (range 2–26+ mo). The complete response rate was higher in patients who received at least 12 doses of high-dose cytosine arabinoside compared to shorter regimens [17/28 (61%) versus 2/9 (22%), p less than 0.05]. Resistance to cytosine arabinoside in conventional doses was documented in 11 patients, 5 of whom responded (2 complete remissions) to high-dose regimens. We conclude that high-dose cytosine arabinoside in the maximally tolerated regimen of 3 g/sq m every 12 hr for 6 days has substantial antileukemic activity in patients refractory to standard therapy. Durable unmaintained remissions can be achieved, even in patients who fail to respond to cytosine arabinoside in conventional doses.


Blood ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 85 (12) ◽  
pp. 3754-3761 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Haas ◽  
B Witt ◽  
R Mohle ◽  
H Goldschmidt ◽  
S Hohaus ◽  
...  

A retrospective analysis of long-term hematopoiesis was performed in a group of 145 consecutive patients who had received high-dose therapy with peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) support between May 1985 and December 1993. Twenty-two patients had acute myelogenous leukemia, nine had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 43 had Hodgkin's disease, 57 had non- Hodgkin's lymphoma, and 14 patients had multiple myeloma. Eighty-four patients were male and 61 female, with a median age of 37 years (range, 16 to 58 years). In 46 patients, PBPC were collected after cytotoxic chemotherapy alone, while 99 patients received cytokines either during steady-state hematopoiesis or post-chemotherapy. Sixty patients were treated with dose-escalated polychemotherapy, and 85 patients had a conditioning therapy including hyperfractionated total body irradiation at a total dose of 14.4 Gy. The duration of severe pancytopenia posttransplantation was inversely related to the number of reinfused granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming units (CFU-GM) and CD34+ cells. Threshold quantities of 2.5 x 10(6) CD34+ cells per kilogram or 12.0 x 10(4) CFU-GM per kilogram became evident and were associated with rapid neutrophil and platelet recovery within less than 18 and 14 days, respectively. These numbers were also predictive for long-term reconstitution, indicating that normal blood counts are likely to be achieved within less than 10 months after transplantation. Conversely, 12 patients were autografted with a median of 1.75 x 10(4) CFU-GM per kilogram resulting in delayed recovery to platelet counts of greater than 150 x 10(9)/L between 1 and 6 years. Our study includes bone marrow examinations in 50 patients performed at a median follow-up time of 10 months (range, 1 to 85 months) posttransplantation. A comparison with normal volunteers showed a 3.2-fold smaller proportion of bone marrow CD34+ cells, which was paralleled by an even more pronounced reduction in the plating efficiency of CFU-GM and burst-forming unit-erythroid. No secondary graft failure was observed, even in patients autografted with relatively low numbers of progenitor cells. This suggests that either the pretransplant regimens were not myeloablative, allowing autochthonous recovery, or that a small number of cells capable of perpetual self-renewal were included in the autograft products.


2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (15) ◽  
pp. 3249-3253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Seiter ◽  
Delong Liu ◽  
Thomas Loughran ◽  
Ahmad Siddiqui ◽  
Paul Baskind ◽  
...  

PURPOSE: To determine the dose-limiting toxicity and maximum-tolerated dose of temozolomide in patients with acute leukemia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twenty patients (16 with acute myelogenous leukemia, two with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and two with chronic myelogenous leukemia in blastic phase) received 43 cycles of temozolomide. Patients began treatment at two different dose levels: 200 mg/m2/d for 7 days or 200 mg/m2/d for 9 days. RESULTS: Prolonged aplasia was the dose-limiting toxicity, and the maximum-tolerated dose was 7 days of temozolomide. Overall treatment was well tolerated: hospitalization was required in only nine of 43 courses, and there were no treatment-related deaths. Two patients obtained a complete response, and two others met criteria for complete response except for platelet recovery. Overall, nine of 20 patients had a significant decrease in bone marrow blasts after temozolomide treatment. CONCLUSION: Temozolomide was well tolerated and had significant antileukemic activity when administered as a single agent. Further studies of temozolomide in hematologic malignancies are indicated.


Blood ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
RA Brown ◽  
RH Herzig ◽  
SN Wolff ◽  
D Frei-Lahr ◽  
L Pineiro ◽  
...  

Seventy-five patients with resistant acute leukemia or lymphoma received high-dose cyclophosphamide and etoposide to explore the activity of this combination in resistant hematologic malignancies, and to determine the maximum doses of these drugs that can be combined without bone marrow transplantation. Etoposide was administered over 29 to 69 hours by continuous infusion corresponding to total doses of 1.8 g/m2 to 4.8 g/m2. Cyclophosphamide, 50 mg/kg/d, was administered on 3 or 4 consecutive days total 150 to 200 mg/kg ideal body weight). At all dose levels myelosuppression was severe but reversible. Mucosal toxicity was dose-limiting with the maximum tolerated dose level combining etoposide 4.2 g/m2 with cyclophosphamide 200 mg/kg. Continuous etoposide infusion produced stable plasma levels that were lower than would be achieved after administration by short intravenous infusion, and this could explain our ability to escalate etoposide above the previously reported maximum tolerated dose. There were 28 complete (35%) and 12 partial (16%) responses. Median duration of complete response (CR) was 3.5 months (range 1.1 to 20+). Seventeen of 40 patients (42%) with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) achieved CR, including 6 of 20 (30%) with high-dose cytosine arabinoside resistance. We conclude that bone marrow transplantation is not required after maximum tolerated doses of etoposide and cyclophosphamide. This regimen is active in resistant hematologic neoplasms, and the occurrence of CR in patients with high-dose cytosine arabinoside-resistant AML indicates a lack of complete cross-resistance between these regimens.


Blood ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
RA Brown ◽  
RH Herzig ◽  
SN Wolff ◽  
D Frei-Lahr ◽  
L Pineiro ◽  
...  

Abstract Seventy-five patients with resistant acute leukemia or lymphoma received high-dose cyclophosphamide and etoposide to explore the activity of this combination in resistant hematologic malignancies, and to determine the maximum doses of these drugs that can be combined without bone marrow transplantation. Etoposide was administered over 29 to 69 hours by continuous infusion corresponding to total doses of 1.8 g/m2 to 4.8 g/m2. Cyclophosphamide, 50 mg/kg/d, was administered on 3 or 4 consecutive days total 150 to 200 mg/kg ideal body weight). At all dose levels myelosuppression was severe but reversible. Mucosal toxicity was dose-limiting with the maximum tolerated dose level combining etoposide 4.2 g/m2 with cyclophosphamide 200 mg/kg. Continuous etoposide infusion produced stable plasma levels that were lower than would be achieved after administration by short intravenous infusion, and this could explain our ability to escalate etoposide above the previously reported maximum tolerated dose. There were 28 complete (35%) and 12 partial (16%) responses. Median duration of complete response (CR) was 3.5 months (range 1.1 to 20+). Seventeen of 40 patients (42%) with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) achieved CR, including 6 of 20 (30%) with high-dose cytosine arabinoside resistance. We conclude that bone marrow transplantation is not required after maximum tolerated doses of etoposide and cyclophosphamide. This regimen is active in resistant hematologic neoplasms, and the occurrence of CR in patients with high-dose cytosine arabinoside-resistant AML indicates a lack of complete cross-resistance between these regimens.


1986 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 1079-1088 ◽  
Author(s):  
S J Iacoboni ◽  
W Plunkett ◽  
H M Kantarjian ◽  
E Estey ◽  
M J Keating ◽  
...  

Twenty-one patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in blastic transformation underwent 22 remission induction attempts with high-dose cytosine arabinoside (ara-C), administered as a two-hour infusion of 3 g/m2 for six to 12 doses. Ara-C doses were administered every 12 hours in 15 patients and every six to ten hours in six patients. Median patient age was 35 years (range, 20 to 62). The median duration of benign phase was 25 months (range, 0 to 167). Morphology of blast crisis blast cells was myeloid in 15 patients and lymphoid in six. Five patients achieved complete remission (CR), three had partial remission (PR), and one had hematologic improvement, for an overall response rate of 41%. Median remission duration was 2.5 months (range, 0.5 to 6 months). Survival duration was 6 months for responding patients and 1.5 months for those with resistant disease. The response rate was similar for patients with myeloid and lymphoid blast crisis (31% v 50%, respectively). The response rate was significantly higher for patients whose benign phase was less than 1 year (75% v 21%, P = .05) and who had prolonged marrow aplasia after ara-C (86% v 27%, P = .05). Myelosuppression was the major dose-limiting toxicity, and cerebellar toxicity occurred in two patients. Intracellular ara-C 5'-triphosphate (ara-CTP) levels were similar in blood and bone marrow leukemic cells and were slightly greater in the cells of responding patients compared to those with resistant disease. We conclude that high-dose ara-C is an effective regimen for CML blast crisis, resulting in a substantial response rate but modest remission duration. Its combination with other agents may further improve the prognosis of patients with this resistant disease.


Blood ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 82 (9) ◽  
pp. 2920-2928 ◽  
Author(s):  
DS Snyder ◽  
NJ Chao ◽  
MD Amylon ◽  
J Taguchi ◽  
GD Long ◽  
...  

Abstract Ninety-nine consecutive patients with acute leukemia in first complete remission under age 50 (median age 27 years; age range 1 to 47 years) with a histocompatible sibling donor were treated with fractionated total body irradiation (1,320 cGy) and high-dose etoposide (60 mg/kg) followed by allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Sixty-one patients were diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), 34 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), 3 patients with biphenotypic acute leukemia, and 1 patient with acute undifferentiated leukemia. Thirty of the 34 patients with ALL had at least one of the following high-risk factors: age greater than 30, white blood cell count at presentation > 25,000/microL, extramedullary disease, certain chromosomal translocations, or the need for greater than 4 weeks of induction chemotherapy to achieve first complete remission. Cumulative probabilities of disease-free survival and relapse at 3 years were 61% and 12%, respectively, for the 61 patients with AML and 64% and 12%, respectively, for the 34 patients with ALL. By stepwise Cox regression analysis, significant prognostic variables for patients with acute myelogenous leukemia were the presence of acute graft-versus-host disease and increasing age, whereas for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, significant variables were age and the development of cytomegalovirus-associated interstitial pneumonia. Complications related to graft-versus-host disease and relapse of leukemia were the major causes of death.


Blood ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 744-749 ◽  
Author(s):  
W Hiddemann ◽  
H Kreutzmann ◽  
K Straif ◽  
WD Ludwig ◽  
R Mertelsmann ◽  
...  

Abstract In a clinical phase I/II study, high-dose cytosine arabinoside and mitoxantrone (HAM) were given in combination to 40 patients with refractory acute myeloid leukemia. All patients had received a 9-day combination of thioguanine, Ara-C, and daunorubicin (TAD-9) as standardized first-line treatment. Refractoriness was defined as (a) nonresponse against two TAD-9 induction cycles, (b) early relapse within the first 6 months on monthly maintenance or after TAD-9 consolidation, (c) relapse after 6 months with nonresponse against one additional TAD-9 cycle, and (d) second and subsequent relapses after successful TAD-9 therapy at the preceding relapse. Therapy consisted of HD-Ara-C 3 g/m2 every 12 hours on days 1 through 4; mitoxantrone was started at 12 mg/m2/day on days 3, 4, and 5 and was escalated to 4 and 5 doses of 10 mg/m2/day on days 2 through 5 and 2 through 6. Of the 40 patients, 21 achieved a complete remission (53%), 1 patient had a partial remission, and 5 patients were nonresponders. Thirteen patients died in aplasia due to infections (n = 11), pericardiac effusion, or acute cardiomyopathy. Nonhematologic side effects consisted predominantly of nausea and vomiting, mucositis, and diarrhea. Central nervous system (CNS) symptoms were observed during six treatment courses. Recovery of blood counts occurred at a median of 27 days from the onset of treatment; the median time to complete remission was 36 days. Two of the 21 responders underwent successful bone marrow transplantations. The median remission duration for the remaining 19 patients is 4.5 months, and the median survival time is 9 months. These data emphasize that HAM has high antileukemic activity in refractory AML and strongly suggest starting the combination at earlier stages in AML therapy.


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