Prognosis in adult acute myelogenous leukemia related to performance status and other factors

Pretreatment factors of prognostic value were sought in 54 consecutively treated cases of adult acute myelogenous leukemia. Twenty of 37 patients with a good (greater than 50%) pretreatment Karnofsky performance status (P.S.) achieved complete remission (C.R.), while only 1/17 with a poor P.S. achieved C.R. This difference was highly significant (p=0.004). Complete remissions correlated with a median survival of 21 months. Patients with a good P.S. had a median survival of 8 months, while those with a poor P.S. had a median survival of only 1 month. This difference was also highly significant (p less than 0.002). Older patients with a good P.S. did as well as younger patients. The P.S., although imprecise, undoubtedly reflects the extent to which the disease, as well as intercurrent problems, have affected the patient. Attention to this aspect of patient selection for current drug regimens is indicated.