title: [Treatment of hairy cell leukemia with cladribine].
abstract: Hairy cell leukemia is a chronic B-cell lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by clonal proliferation of hairy cells. Treatments of choice are purine analogues, particularly cladribine. We treated thirty patients with cladribine either by continuous 7-day infusion at a daily dose of 0.1 mg/kg or by 2-h infusion for 5 consecutive days at a daily dose of 0.14 mg/kg. Remission was achieved in 90% of the patients. After a median follow-up of 44 months overall survival is 93% and time to treatment failure more than 6 years. Two patients did not respond, one patient died of infection shortly after the treatment. Side-effects resulted mainly from hematological toxicity, 23% of the patients had neutropenic fever while 20% required platelets or packed red cell transfusions. Our results show that cladribine is safe and effective in the treatment of hairy cell leukemia. There were no significant differences in toxicity and response between 7-day continuous infusion and 5-day intermittent infusions of the drug.
authors.affiliation: Klinika za unutarnje bolesti Medicinskog fakulteta i Klinickog bolnickog centra Zagreb.
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Aurer
authors.forename: Zdravko
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Mitrović
authors.forename: Jasminka
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kovacević-Metelko
authors.forename: Ivo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Radman
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Basić-Kinda
authors.forename: Koraljka
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gjadrov-Kuvezdić
authors.forename: Jasminka
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jakić-Razumović
authors.forename: Klara
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dubravcić
authors.forename: Suncica
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ries
authors.forename: Marin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nola
authors.forename: Silva
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zupancic-Salek
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Labar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017338:Cladribine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007943:Leukemia, Hairy Cell / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012074:Remission Induction; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D017338:Cladribine