FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE HAEMATOLOGICAL REMISSION DURATION IN ACUTE LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKAEMIA
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE HAEMATOLOGICAL REMISSION DURATION IN ACUTE LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKAEMIA
复制标题
影响急性淋巴细胞白血病血液学缓解持续时间的因素
DOI:
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发表时间:
1976
影响因子:
6.5
通讯作者:
J. Simone
中科院分区:
文献类型:
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作者:
J. Simone
Modern therapy for acute 1 ymphocytic leukaemia (ALL) induces remission and prevents evident central nervous system (CNS) leukaemia in over 90% of children (Simone, 1974). The quality and duration of remission has so improved that therapy may be stopped safely in a significant proportion of patients (Aur et al , 1974). Despite these advances, the current treatment of ALL leaves much to be desired. Modern therapy is complex, costly and largely empirical; it has side effects ranging from merely annoying to life-threatening ; it is potentially carcinogenic and may have latent functional effects on organs such as the gonads, liver, nervous system and heart. The most serious immediate problem facing modern therapy, however, is its inability to prevent haematological relapse in one-third to two-thirds of patients. When haematological relapse occurs in patients receiving chemotherapy at the time, the chance for survival is virtually eliminated. Although the ideal therapy for preventing or delaying haematological relapse is unknown, useful guidelines have been developed. Studies have clearly established the necessity of continuing therapy during remission (Freireich et al, 1964), the superiority of intermittent over daily methotrexate administration (Acute Leukemia Group B, 1965) and the value of giving maximum-tolerated doses of chemotherapy (Pinkel et al , 1971). While methotrexate and mercaptopurine have been the most effective agents for prolonging haematological remission, controlled studies failed to establish the substantial superiority of simultaneous, sequential or cyclic combinations (Frei et al , 1961; Australian Study Group, 1968; Krivit et al , 1968). The addition of other chemotherapeutic agents prolonged remission in some studies (Holland & Glidewell, 1972; Leikin et al , 1969; Pinkel, 1971; Haghbin et al, 1974) and not in others (Aur et a l , 1972; Sackman Muriel et al , 1974; Simone et al , 197~a, b). However, since no regimen has emerged with sufficient efficacy to become standard, the composition of therapy during remission requires periodic re-examination (Simone, I 974). This annotation presents new data from an analysis of factors influencing haematological remission duration in four consecutive ‘total therapy’ studies of ALL at this hospital and attempts to explain the inferior results in one study. As shown in Table I, all studies employed multiple-agent therapy and, after Study V (Aur et a/, 1971a), a series of modifications was tested by randomization in Studies VI (Aur et al, 1972), VII (Aur et a!, 1973) and VIII (S’ imone, 1974; Simone et al, 1975a, b). All patients who attained haematological remission are included in the comparisons between studies except the 20 patients in study VIII randomized to receive methotrexate alone; excessive neurotoxicity required early termination of this limb (Simone et al, 197sa). To quantify the haematological relapse rate for each study and subgroup, the regression coefficient was derived by the least squares method from the proportion of patients remaining in haematological remission at 6 month intervals. Analysis is limited to 24 months in Studies V-VII because most relapses occur during this time and the slopes subsequently become