• Sook-Ryun Park, Jee Hyun Kim, KimDo YeunDY, Sehoon Lee, Sang-Yoon Lee, In Sil Choi, Sung-Soo Yoon, Seonyang Park, Byuoung-Gook Kim, and Noe Kyoung Kim.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28, Yongon-dong, Chongno-gu, Seoul 110-744, Korea. seonpark@plaza.snu.ac.kr
• Korean J. Intern. Med. 2003 Mar 1; 18 (1): 21-8.

BackgroundBecause of the relative paucity of data regarding the clinical outcome in adult patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) in Korea, we analyzed clinical courses in adult ALL patients treated with VPD (L) regimen (vincristine, prednisolone, daunorubicin, L-asparaginase) at the Seoul National University Hospital, and evaluated prognostic factors influencing the outcome.MethodsPatients with ALL newly diagnosed between October 1994 and June 2000 at our hospital were analyzed retrospectively. Fifty-three patients were evaluable. Induction chemotherapy consisted of VPD with (46 cases) or without L-asparaginase (7 cases). After complete remission (CR), consolidation therapy, CNS prophylaxis and maintenance chemotherapy were administered.ResultsAges ranged from 16 to 67 (median 30). CR rate was 86.8% (46/53) and no significant prognostic factor was found for the CR rate. With a median follow-up time of 27.2 months (range 12.9-83.0 months) in living patients, the median overall survival (OS) for all cases was 16.7 months (13.4-20.1 months, 95% C.I.) and the estimated 4-year OS rate was 25.4% +/- 8.9%. The median relapse-free survival (RFS) was 12.2 months (8.4-16.0 months, 95% C.I.), and 3-year RFS rate was 29.9% +/- 10.2%. Poor prognostic factors for OS were Ph chromosome (p = 0.005) and T-cell immunophenotype (p = 0.03). For RFS they were Ph chromosome (p = 0.01) and the presence of a mediastinal mass (p = 0.03).ConclusionDespite an initial excellent response to the VPD (L) regimen, newer therapeutic strategies, including more intensive postremission therapies, are urgently needed because of the high relapse rate. Future therapeutic approaches need to be stratified according to several prognostic factors.

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