Clofarabine induced durable complete remission in heavily pretreated adolescents with relapsed and refractory leukemia.
Current treatments for relapsed/refractory leukemias are unable to achieve extended remissions in most patients even with multiagent chemotherapy. Clofarabine is a new nucleoside analog that has demonstrated clinical benefit in phase I-II studies, and is currently being studied in children and adults with leukemias and has been approved for the treatment of children with relapsed or refractory acute lymphocytic leukemia. We report the experience of three adolescents, two with acute lymphocytic leukemia in 3rd relapse and one with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia, who achieved complete remission with clofarabine. The remissions were sustained with repeated cycles of monotherapy for 47, 59, and 64 weeks, respectively.
Steinherz
Peter G
PG
Department of Pediatrics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021, USA. steinhep@MSKCC.ORG
Meyers
Paul A
PA
Steinherz
Laurel J
LJ
Jeha
Sima
S
D000208:Acute Disease; D000227:Adenine Nucleotides / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000293:Adolescent; D001087:Arabinonucleosides / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000077866:Clofarabine; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007951:Leukemia, Myeloid / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008297:Male; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012008:Recurrence; D012074:Remission Induction