Significant reduction of medical costs by differentiation therapy with all-trans retinoic acid during remission induction of newly diagnosed patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia
✍ Scribed by Akihiro Takeshita; Hisashi Sakamaki; Shuichi Miyawaki; Toru Kobayashi; Kazutaka Kuriyama; Osamu Yamada; Hakumei Oh; Takeaki Takenaka; Norio Asou; Ryuzo Ohno
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1995
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 631 KB
- Volume
- 76
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0008-543X
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✦ Synopsis
Background. Differentiation therapy with all-trans retinoic acid (RA) induces more than 80% complete remission with the least complications in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). The authors studied the cost-benefit of this new treatment modality compared with conventional chemotherapy in newly diagnosed patients with APL.
Methods. Costs were calculated retrospectively through the monthly bills of each patient to national health insurance and were compared between 36 patients treated with conventional chemotherapy in the AML-87 or AML-89 studies and 40 patients treated with all-trans RA alone or with all-trans RA plus low dose chemotherapy in the AML-92 study of the Japan Adult Leukemia