Comparison of the modified low-dose cytarabine and etoposide with decitabine therapy for elderly acute myeloid leukemia patients unfit for intensive chemotherapy.

ABSTRACT: To overcome unsatisfactory results of classical low-dose cytarabine (LDAC) of cytarabine ≤20 mg twice daily (BID) subcutaneously for 10 days for patients with elderly acute myeloid leukemia (eAML), we evaluated a modified LDAC (mLDAC) of cytarabine 20 mg/m² BID subcutaneously plus etoposide 50 mg BID orally for 14 days. To determine its feasibility, we compared outcomes of 77 and 42 eAML patients who received, respectively, mLDAC and decitabine (DAC; 20 mg/m² intravenously daily for 5 days), which has shown better outcomes compared to those of classical LDAC. Most of baseline characteristics of two groups were well balanced. The mLDAC group had a higher complete response (CR) rate compared to the DAC group (46.8% vs. 19.0%, P < 0.01). Unlike the classical LDAC,

SUBMITTER: Shin SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5814177 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature