Intermediate-dose methotrexate in the treatment of childhood acute lymphocytic leukaemia: lack of benefit during maintenance therapy following intensive induction therapy
✍ Scribed by G. E. Janka-Schaub; K. Winkler; H. Jürgens; U. Goebel; P. Gutjahr; H. J. Spaar
- Publisher
- Springer
- Year
- 1986
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 454 KB
- Volume
- 145
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0340-6997
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✦ Synopsis
One hundred and fifty-one children with acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL) received multiple agent induction chemotherapy followed by intensive phase treatment. One hundred and thirty-seven patients were randomised for the first year of maintenance treatment to receive reinforcement therapy (pulses) with either intermediate-dose methotrexate (ID-MTX) and prednisone (PRED) or vincristine (VCR) and PRED. The probablity of continuous complete remission (CCR) at 5.5 years is 0.80 for the ID-MTX group and 0.84 for the VCR group. Extramedullary relapses were not prevented either in the [D-MTX group nor in the VCR group.
Since in previous studies VCR/PRED pulses did not increase CCR rates when given after intensive combination chemotherapy, it can be concluded from this study that neither did ID-MTX reinforcement therapy further improve treatment results in our patients with ALL when given after aggressive chemotherapy.