Thirty patients with acute granulocytic leukemia were treated with ARA-C (100 mg/m2 IV during 5 days) and RBD (100 mg/m*/day during 3 days). Twentytwo patients with AML and eight with APML were treated. The drugs always induced severe pancytopenia lasting an average of 18 days. Sixteen patients achieved complete remission; 2 were partial remissions, and 12 were failures. Survival time among all patients averaged 1.2 months. Of the 16 patients achieving complete remission, only 6 relapsed and 14 patients are still alive (5 to 19 months).
YTOSINE ARABINOSIDE (ARA-C), OR I@-D C arabino-furanosyl-cytosine, used in acute granulocytic leukemia (AGL), gives nearly 25y0 complete remissions.1~3~7~12 From 25y0 to 50% complete remissions4J6~19 can be achieved with rubidomycin (RBD), or daunorubicin, an antibiotic isolated from cultures of Streptomyres coeruleorubidzis.
We present here the results of utilization of these two drugs used in a sequential way in 30 cases of AGL.
Methods
During a year period, starting December 1970, 30 patients entered our center with a diagnosis of A.G.L. All were seen at the first manifestation of the disease; relapses were excluded from the study. Elderly patients, severely infected patients, and patients who died before 24 hours of therapy had been administered were included. There were 14 males and 12 females. Ages ranged from 9 to 78 years; only one child was included, and six patients were over 60 years of age. We did not separate acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) from acute promyelocytic leukemia (APML).