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Research
Background
Strategies using oral arsenic trioxide (As2O3) are efficacious in relapsed acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), but they have not been examined in newly diagnosed cases.
Methods
Sixty-two consecutive patients (24 men and 38 women) with a median age of 52 years (range, 22-85 years), 36% of whom had high-risk features, underwent induction with all-trans retinoic acid at 45 mg/m2/d, oral As2O3 at 10 mg/d, and ascorbic acid at 1 g/d (the all-trans retinoic acid–arsenic trioxide–ascorbic acid [AAA] regimen) for 6 weeks (with patients younger than 70 years additionally receiving daunorubicin at 50 mg/m2/d × 3); they then underwent consolidation with 2 monthly cycles of daunorubicin (50 mg/m2/d × 2) and cytarabine (100 mg/m2/d × 5) and received AAA maintenance (2 weeks every 8 weeks) for 2 years. A contemporaneous cohort of 37 newly diagnosed patients (15 men and 22 women) with a median age of 51 years (range, 23-78 years), not consenting to oral As2O3 induction but receiving similar induction, consolidation, and AAA maintenance, served as a comparator group; 46% of these patients had high-risk features.
Results
The oral As2O3 induction cohort showed a complete remission (CR) rate of 100%. After a median of 37 months (range, 13-82 months), there were no relapses, so conventional risks (age, leukocyte and platelet counts, and Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 [FLT3] mutations) were not relevant. The leukemia-free survival (LFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 100% at 3 years and 94.1% at 5 years. The non–As2O3 induction cohort showed a CR rate of 100%. After a median of 52 months (range, 14-77 months), there were 3 relapses (8%). Comparable patients in the oral As2O3 induction and non–As2O3 induction cohorts showed similar OS, but LFS was significantly superior in the oral As2O3 induction cohort.
Conclusions
The incorporation of oral As2O3 into induction for newly diagnosed APL was safe and decreased relapses.
