[Multidisciplinary treatment of leukemia]

Recently, treatment of leukemia has shown remarkable progress. Development of new antileukemic drugs, improvements in supportive care and rapid progress in bone marrow transplantation have resulted in considerable changes in responses in refractory leukemia. Chemotherapy for Acute leukemia: By the introduction of Mitoxantrone and etoposide and a new combination chemotherapy including them, a high remission rate of acute leukemia is obtained, but because of the high relapse rate the 5-year survival rates in our center were 20% for adult ALL and 18% for ANL. In order to reduce the relapse rate, a new regimen containing intensive consolidation treatments is now being studied in a nation-wide cooperative study. BMT: In 1987, 160 BMTs including 75 acute leukemia and 28 CML, were registered in Japan. The improvements in the management of graft versus host disease (GVHD) and infections in the granulocytopenic period has contributed to the marked increase in the long-term survival rate after BMT. In our center the long-term survival rate rose from 20% before 1984 to 85% after 1985. Colony stimulating factor: Macrophage-colony stimulating factor (M-CSF) and granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) were studied in Japan. In the double-blind placebo controlled study of M-CSF, a significantly shorter duration of granulocytopenia, as well as a significantly lower rate of failure of BMT (i.e., death or retransplant) was observed. In the phase II study of G-CSF, a rapid recovery of granulocytes after chemotherapy or BMT and marked efficacy on infection in granulocytopenic patients were observed.