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Therapy

Duration of second complete remission compared with first complete remission in patients with acute myeloid leukemia

Leukemia volume 14, pages 1345–1348 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

The prognosis for patients with acute myeloid leukemia in first relapse is generally poor. The ability to induce a second complete remission (CR) with the same chemotherapy used in initial induction therapy is limited. Remission inversion rate, defined as achieving a longer second CR than the first CR in response to standard chemotherapy for relapse, is important in assessing studies of novel chemotherapy or immunologic treatment strategies for patients with relapsed disease. One hundred and twenty-four patients entered on two Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) studies for patients with relapsed AML were analyzed to determine the remission inversion rate. Twenty-two of the 124 patients (18%; 95% confidence interval 12–26%) experienced a longer second CR duration than the first CR duration by at least 2 months. Inversion of CR duration is thus not a rare event. The inversion frequency reported here establishes a baseline upon which future studies in relapsed disease need to be defined.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA

    S Lee

  2. Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, IL, USA

    MS Tallman

  3. Virginia Piper Cancer Institute, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    MM Oken

  4. University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA

    PA Cassileth

  5. University of Rochester Cancer Center, Rochester, NY, USA

    JM Bennett

  6. Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, NY Medical College, Bronx, NY, USA

    PH Wiernik

  7. Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel

    JM Rowe

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Lee, S., Tallman, M., Oken, M. et al. Duration of second complete remission compared with first complete remission in patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Leukemia 14, 1345–1348 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2401853

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