acute myelocytic leukemia management

WHAT IS HYPOPLASTIC ANEMIA? Aplastic anemia is a hematological disease characterized by pancytopenia and bone marrow hypoplasia. Acquired cases of aplastic anemia are almost all idiopathic and arise from unknown causes. Other cases of aplastic anemia are secondary and are caused by radiation, chemicals or viruses. PATHOPHYSIOLOGY: Aplastic anemia is manifested as a marked reduction in the number of pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells, but why this occurs is still uncertain. Some of the proposed causes include abnormalities of the hematopoietic stem cells, abnormalities in the hematopoietic microenvironment, and immunologically mediated damage to the hematopoietic stem cells (Figure 1)...

BACKGROUND: Specific cutaneous involvement is frequently observed in congenital leukemia and may be the inaugural sign. Lesions may be non-specific and even regress spontaneously, misleading diagnosis and delaying care. CASE REPORT: A infant in good health had diffuse ecchymotic maculae at birth which totally regressed within 10 days. On day 20, a macular rash and three violet nodules developed. The physical examination found enlarged nodes, liver enlargement and poor general status...

Adequate treatment protocols provide excellent results in management of lymphoma, leukemia and other malignancies in children. With improved survival rates, therapy related sequaela like osteonecrosis (avascular necrosis of bone, AVN) have become a matter of increasing concern. From 1982 to 1992 121 patients were treated for acute lymphocytic leukemia, acute myelocytic leukemia, Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and Langerhanscell-histiocytosis. All patients were treated with multiagent regimes that included low-dose steroid therapy...

A clinical case is presented of a 37 year old patient with acute myelocytic leukemia who conceived while in therapy. The pregnancy was controlled in our department in association with the Hematology Department. A cesarean section was performed in the 37th week of gestation, resulting in a healthy newborn. A review of literature is presented, analyzing the association between these two conditions, as well as repercussion on the mother and infant and the recommended obstetric management.

The decision to operate for abdominal pain in patients with leukopenia can be exceedingly difficult. Surgical exploration may be the only effective way to differentiate acute appendicitis from other causes, but it involves considerable risk of infectious complications due to immunosuppression. Leukemic patients, who presented significant RLQ pain, had been indicated for operation, despite having advanced disease or having had received chemotherapy or steroids. Four adult leukemia patients, complicated by acute appendicitis, were reviewed...

The activation of autologous cytotoxic cells by interleukin-2 (IL-2) may be a promising tool for elimination of minimal residual blast populations in patients with acute myelocytic leukemia (AML) to prolong disease-free survival. Here, we report the results of a phase II study using IL-2 for consolidation therapy in patients with second remission of de novo AML. All patients in 1st relapse of AML received a uniform induction therapy consisting of intermediate high-dose AraC (iHDAraC) 2 x 600 mg/m2 d1-4 and VP-16 100 mg/m2 d1-7...

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Relapses in nine patients with acute myelocytic leukemia were treated with a combination of aclarubicin (ACR) and cytosine arabinoside (ara-C). ACR, 40 mg/m2/day, was administered daily by intravenous injection from day 1 to day 3 and ara-C, 60-80 mg/m2/day, divided into 2 doses, was given every 12 h by intravenous infusion from day 1 to day 7. Depending on the state of the bone marrow, ACR-ara-C regimen was modified in administration period and repeated after the resting periods of at least 7 days. Complete remission was obtained in 7 of 9 patients (77...

Fifteen patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) were treated with anthracycline agents alone or combined with arabinosylcytosine (Ara C). Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) was managed individually based on the presence of clinical as well as laboratory evidence of DIC. Ten patients received heparin. Eleven patients (73%) achieved complete remission (CR) but there were two early deaths from infection. The median duration of CR was 232 days (range, 41-780 days). Six patients were studied during ten relapses...

Twelve patients with refractory acute leukemia (7 patients with acute myelocytic leukemia and 5 patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia) were treated with a new anthracycline antibiotic, aclacinomycin-A (ACM). ACM was administrated by intravenous drip infusion at a dose of 20 mg/day for 7 or 14 days and this was repeated after at least 7 days. Four of 12 patients (33.3%) achieved a complete remission; 3 of 7 acute myelocytic leukemia (42.8%) and 1 of 5 acute lymphocytic leukemia (20.0%). The days required for achieving the complete remission ranged from 23 to 78 days (median: 61) and the total doses of ACM used from 180 to 500 mg (median: 310), and the durations of complete remission from 11 to 28+ weeks (median: 21+)...

The toxic effects of high-dose busulfan (16 mg/kg) and cyclophosphamide (200 mg/kg) with autologous or syngeneic bone marrow rescue were evaluated in 19 patients (11 with acute myelocytic leukemia, one with acute lymphocytic leukemia, one with acute myelofibrosis, two with chronic myelocytic leukemia, one with Hodgkin's disease, and three with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma). Their mean age was 26 years (range, 6-50); nine patients had syngeneic and ten had autologous bone marrow rescue (six of whom had in vitro bone marrow incubation with 4-hydroperoxycyclophosphamide)...

A 69-year-old man with metastatic islet cell carcinoma was treated with streptozotocin and achieved excellent tumor regression. Sixty-seven grams of streptozotocin were given over 28 months. After completion of streptozotocin therapy, the patient had progressive leukopenia. Thirteen months after discontinuation of streptozotocin, acute myelocytic leukemia developed in the patient. He received aggressive antileukemia therapy but died without achieving complete remission. Streptozotocin should be added to the list of chemotherapeutic agents whose prolonged use in the management of a primary malignancy has been followed by the appearance of acute leukemia...

The toxicity of high dose cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C) in 23 leukemic children aged 1.5 years to 16 years 11 months was evaluated. The group included 11 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), nine with acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia (ANLL), two with chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) in blastic crisis, and one with Burkitt's lymphoma. Toxicity consisted of bone marrow suppression in all patients, with a mean nadir time of 11 days for platelets and granulocytes. All patients experienced nausea and vomiting; 12 of 23 had drug induced fever; seven of 23 conjunctivitis; five of 23 mucositis; four of 23 diarrhea, and one of 23 elevated transaminase with hyperbilirubinemia...

A young woman with acute myelocytic leukemia developed acute lower gastrointestinal bleeding immediately after a first remission induction of her leukemia. After the site of bleeding was located in the descending colon, a necrotic bleeding ulcer was resected. Histologic examination of the ulcer established the diagnosis of gastrointestinal mucormycosis. Treatment with amphotericin B was administered because of the high risk of dissemination. The patient has been followed for 9 months with no evidence of relapse of infection...

Four cases of hypoplastic leukemia, one of acute myelocytic leukemia (M2) and one of RAEB-t were treated with a low-dose 4N-behenoyl-1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine (LD-BHAC) regimen, in which 50 mg BHAC was administered daily intravenously by one-hour drip infusion for 14 days. Among the 6 cases, three (2 hypoplastic leukemia and one M2) obtained complete remission and one (hypoplastic leukemia), partial remission. Response rates were 66.6% of all cases, and 75% of cases of hypoplastic leukemia. During treatment, cytopenia was observed in all cases and a decrease in bone marrow nucleated cell counts was recognized in the aged M2 patient with remission...

Thirteen previously untreated patients aged 70 and above with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia were treated with aclarubicin (ACR) alone. Among 10 cases (3, acute myelocytic leukemia; 4, acute myelomonocytic leukemia; 2, acute monocytic leukemia; and one, acute erythroleukemia) in which an evaluation was possible, 5 cases (3, acute myelomonocytic leukemia; and 2, acute monocytic leukemia) obtained complete remission (CR). The CR rate was 83% in 6 patients with acute myelomonocytic leukemia or acute monocytic leukemia...

The natural history and haematological features of 18 patients with a chronic form of myelomonocytic leukaemia are described. The majority were elderly and, in this series, females predominated. Haematological prodomata, such as unexplained monocytosis, leucopenia, or thrombocytopenia were common, and the clinical onset was insidious. Splenomegaly was variable but tended to increase as the disease progressed. Anaemia was usually less than in the acute disease, unless compounded by iron deficiency. The blood film typically showed a mixed monocytosis and granulocytosis, cells in both lines showing abnormalities...

In order to optimize the clinical management of fever in acute myelocytic leukemia (AML), our experience with febrile patients during two therapy periods was reviewed. A structured approach to the management of fever was then devised and evaluated during a third period. Among a total of 104 patients with AML, 77 were febrile at presentation. Only agranulocytic patients (15%) had severe infection, while 43% had localized sites which responded to specific antibiotic therapy. The remainder (42%) had fever functionally attributed to leukemia...

The treatment of acute leukemia in adults, while not yet as successful as that in children with regard to either remission rate or prolongation of life, can now regularly result in at least 50% responses in acute myelocytic leukemia and 70-80% in acute lymphocytic leukemia. Intensive specific chemotherapy and supportive therapy throughout the resultant period of myelo and immuno-suppression are necessary to achieve these remission rates. Further investigations aimed at both prolonging the remissions so obtained and at improving the response rate further are essential...

Nonhuman primate antisera to human leukemia-associated antigens and to normal T- and B-lymphocyte antigens are useful reagents for detecting and classifying leukemic cells in a microcytotoxicity assay. These antisera are able to distinguish lymphocytic from myeloid leukemia cells, and can also identify acute myelomonocytic leukemia and chronic myelocytic leukemia blastic crisis cells from cells of other types of leukemia. The advantages and disadvantages of the reagents in the nosology and clinical management of leukemia patients are discussed in depth...