[Acute myeloid leukemia. Therapeutic results 1985-1994]

In a retrospective study we evaluate the treatment and outcome of 421 adults admitted to our department with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) during the 10 year period from 1985-1994. Younger patients (< or = 55 years) had a significantly better prognosis than elderly patients (> 55 years), partly because more younger patients had remission-induction therapy (81% versus 39%) and their complete remission (CR) rate was higher (69% versus 41%). In patients achieving CR the long-term survival (five years) was 40% for younger and 26% for elderly patients. Nineteen patients received autologous bone marrow transplantation (BMT) and eight an allogeneic BMT in first CR. Five patients treated with allogeneic BMT are still relapse-free, whereas autologous BMT, in comparison to conventional chemotherapy alone, did not improve the five-year relapse-free survival (29 versus 27%). Our data illustrate that in a non-selected material of AML patients the long-term survival (five years) has only slightly improved. The effect of autologous BMT cannot be evaluated in this retrospective setting.