Teniposide in lymphomas and leukemias

The epipodophyllotoxins, etoposide and teniposide, have been used in leukemias and malignant lymphomas for the past 15 years. Although etoposide has acquired a place in many first-line protocols for lymphomas and, more recently, for leukemias, the role of teniposide has remained limited. Teniposide is a more potent inhibitor of topoisomerase II than etoposide, and has a less toxic effect on hematopoietic progenitor cells. Both drugs have been regarded as equitoxic and cross-resistant. The role of teniposide in front-line treatment of leukemias has only been established in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Some promising results have been obtained in small numbers of patients with refractory adult ALL and acute monoblastic leukemia. However, the remission rates and remission duration were not significantly different from those of other combination regimens. Data on teniposide in untreated acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia are very scarce. In non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the antineoplastic activity of teniposide has been demonstrated in studies by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer and in two large studies conducted by the Australian and New Zealand Lymphoma Co-operative Chemotherapy Study Group. In these studies, teniposide had comparable but not significantly better activity than vincristine. The dose-dependent antineoplastic activity of teniposide has led to its use in several conditioning regimens in bone marrow transplantation for leukemias and lymphomas. The limited clinical data currently available on teniposide seem to warrant further clinical trials with this agent in leukemias and lymphomas.