Combination therapy in 130 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (protocol 06 LA 66-Paris).

Abstract

Summary One hundred thirty patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia were treated with Protocol 06 LA 66. With this regimen complete remissions were achieved more frequently in the younger group (100 patients under 20 years of age) than in the older group (30 patients over 20 years of age), and in females more frequently than in males. The median duration of hematological remission was 34 months in the younger group and 11 months in the older group. In patients between 15 and 20 years of age, the prognosis was the same as in the older patients; the prognosis varied according to age, the initial white blood cell count, and the number of doses required to achieve complete remission. Meningeal leukemia occurred in 33% of the cases in spite of preventive intrathecal doses of methotrexate, and in onehalf of these cases meningeal leukemia occurred during the first year of the disease. Twenty % of these early meningeal leukemia cases showed no hematological relapse 5 years later, and 48% of the younger group who attained complete remission survived for more than 4 years.