Seminars in oncology
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Seminars in oncology · Sep 1984
Comparative Study Clinical TrialMitoxantrone as a single agent and in combination chemotherapy in patients with refractory acute leukemia.
A total of 47 patients with relapsed or primarily refractory leukemia were treated with mitoxantrone alone or in combination with vincristine sulfate and prednisone or cytarabine. Eligible patients included those with adequate renal and hepatic function, normal left ventricular ejection fraction, and those who had received previous treatment. When mitoxantrone was given alone in a once daily times five schedule, 5 of 12 acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients achieved complete remission; 4 of these patients had been refractory to reinduction and 1 to induction chemotherapy with anthracycline-containing treatments. ⋯ All the patients achieving complete remission are alive and have been in complete remission from 2 to 12 months. Side effects included mild nausea and vomiting in 9 of 13 patients treated with the mitoxantrone-vincristine sulfate-prednisone combination, and in 3 of 8 patients treated with the mitoxantrone-cytarabine combination. Other side effects of the combination treatments include drug-induced oral mucositis (of a lesser degree than with mitoxantrone alone), transient hepatic abnormalities, and infectious complications, such as sepsis, Candida sp colonization of the upper digestive tract, and soft tissue cellulitis, in a few patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)