A homoharringtonine-based induction regimen for the treatment of elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia: A single center experience from China

Abstract

Background and purpose. The response to remission induction in elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains poor. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of a plant alkaloid, homoharringtonine, in combination with cytarabine as an induction therapy for AML in elderly patients (60 years). Results. Twenty-three patients were treated with the HA regimen consisting of homoharringtonine (2 mg/m2/day for 7 days) and cytarabine (Ara-C, 100 mg/m2/day for 7 days). The overall response rate was 56.5% with complete remission (CR) rate of 39.1% and partial remission of 17.4%. There was no early death in this cohort of patients. The estimated median overall survival (OS) time of all patients was (12.0 3.0) months. The estimated OS time of the CR patients was 15 months. The estimated one-year OS rate of all patients treated with HA protocol was (49.3 13.5) %. The estimated one-year OS rate of the CR patients was (62.5 17.1) %. Conclusion. HA is a suitable induction regimen for elderly patients with AML, with relatively low toxicity and reasonable response rate. © 2009 Wang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.