Idarubicin in refractory acute leukemia

10 patients with resistant or relapsed acute leukemia (9 AML, 1 ALL) were treated with idarubicin (4-demethoxydaunorubicin) in combination with cytosine arabinoside +/- etoposide. All patients had been heavily pretreated. 9 AML-patients had previously received 2-4 cycles of TAD-9 regimen. 2 complete and 1 partial remission were achieved. 1 patient died from septicemia in bone marrow aplasia without leukemic cells. 6 patients did not respond to idarubicin-based salvage treatment. The median survival from start of therapy was 4 months. Idarubicin-based combination chemotherapy is effective in relapsed acute leukemia, even in patients intensively pretreated with anthracyclines.