[Stem-cell leukoses in the adult age--a clinical study]

The cytochemical differentiation of 86 stem cell leucoses of adults resulted with 74% of the cases in a clear prevalence of PAS-negative forms at this age. PAS-positive leucoses were observed only in 11%. The survival time of the patients revealed a clear dependence of the degree of the remission achieved. Also for the cases of PAS-negative leucoses, which achieved a complete remission, it was not worse than the survival time of acute lymphoplastic leucoses. However, the remission coefficient of the PAS-negative leucoses was essentially below the value of lymphoblastic forms. Multiple cytostatic combinations reached the best remission rates. Above all the combination of ribidomycin, cytosine arabinosid (Alexan), 6-mercaptopurine (Mercaleukin), prednisolone and vincristine (Oncovin), called RAMPO-scheme by the authors, seemed to give much success according to the results of this study. The number of complete and good partial remissions was calculated with 62% for the ViDaP-scheme, with 51% for the COAP-scheme. For all cases of treatment the coefficient of remission was 54%.