The hypomethylating agent decitabine prior to chemotherapy improves the therapy efficacy in refractory/relapsed acute myeloid leukemia patients
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Updated: Apr 3, 2026

Murine Model of Leukemia Relapse to Induction Chemotherapy for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Published on: October 17, 2025
Xuejie Jiang1, Zhixiang Wang1, Bingjie Ding1
1Department of Hematology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
Abstract:
In this study, we investigated the effect of pre-treatment with demethylating agent decitabine on susceptibility to chemotherapeutic drugs in HL60/ADR, Kasumi-1 and primary AML cells. Cytotoxic effect was increased by decitabine through activation of p53 and inhibition of c-Myc, Survivin and Bcl-2. We demonstrated in clinic that combination of decitabine and HAA consisting of harringtonine, aclarubicin and cytarabine was effective and safe to treat patients with refractory, relapsed or high-risk AML. Decitabine prior to HAA regimen improved the first induction complete response rate, and significantly prolonged overall survival and disease-free survival in these patients compared with HAA alone. These findings support clinic protocols based on decitabine prior to chemotherapy to overcome resistance and improve therapeutic efficacy in AML patients.
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