Prevention of chemotherapy-induced leukemia and of leukemia relapses. |
| |
Authors: | E J Freireich |
| |
Institution: | Adult Leukemia Research Program, University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston 77030. |
| |
Abstract: | Fifty percent of patients with the myelodysplastic syndrome, frequently following treatment by radiation or chemotherapy, have prognostically unfavorable deletions of the long arms of chromosomes 5 and 7, or trisomy 8, as have the 25% of patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia where remissions last 6-12 months, and where relapse cannot be prevented. In contrast, patients with prognostically favorable cytogenetics (translocation 15; 17 or 8; 21 or inversion 16) maintenance chemotherapy may prevent relapses. Of chronic myelocytic leukemia patients, 85% can achieve hematological remission with interferon alpha, and 40% a partial cytogenetic remission, which probably delays relapse. |
| |
Keywords: | |
|
|