title: High Dose Cytosine Arabinoside in the consolidation of adult acute myeloid leukemia.
abstract: This interventional study was done to evaluate the duration of remission with High Dose Cytosine Arabinoside (Ara-C) as post-remission chemotherapy in the consolidation of adult acute myeloid leukemia. A total of 32 patients were included in this study. Among them, 19 were male and 13 were female and the age of the patients ranges from 15-60 years. We use High Dose Cytosine Arabinoside 1.5-2.5 g/m2 i.v, 12 hourly, over 2-3 hours on day 1, 3 and 5 in a 28 days cycle. This study was done during the period of April 2007 to March 2009 in the department of hematology, Dhaka Medical College & Hospital. History, clinical features and laboratory investigations were included. Among 32 patients, 5 patients (15.6%) received one cycle, 20 patients (62.5%) received two cycles and 7 patients (21.9%) received three cycles. The mean ± SD duration of remission (disease free survival) was 5.20 ± 3.83 months who received one cycle, 9.55 ± 3.30 months and 10.71 ± 1.70 months who received two cycles and three cycles respectively. The adverse effects of the therapy were neutropenia and neutropenic fever, purpuric rash, gum bleeding, mucositis and peripheral neuropathy. The supportive materials needed were antibiotics (both prophylactic and treatment) 86.13%, blood and blood products 51.7% and G-CSF 14.9% patients of all cycles. High Dose Ara-C (HiDAC) is a safe and cost effective consolidation treatment for AML patients in complete remission. This therapy merits multi-center control study to define its efficacy and cost-effectiveness in contrast to our socio-economic condition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Haematology, Mymensingh Medical College, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Afrose
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ara
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D060830:Consolidation Chemotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D003561:Cytarabine / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic; D003561:Cytarabine