[Clinical studies and immunology in acute myeloid leukemia during chemo-immunotherapy]

14 patients with acute myeloid leukemia were treated with intermittent chemo-immunotherapy for maintenance of remission. At monthly intervals, they received 5 days of cytosine-arabinoside alternately combined with adriamycin or thioguanine or cyclophosphamide or CCNU. Two weeks later, 2 x 10(9) unirradiated allogenic blasts mixed with 5-50 units neuraminidase/ml were injected intradermally. Half the patients who had had many unfavourable prognostic factors at the time of diagnosis relapsed within 15 months (average duration of 1st remission 8 months). This result is comparable with the (past) results of chemotherapy alone. Seven of the patients still in first remission have at present reached an average remission duration of 17 months. Regular variations in the blood cell counts, which depended on chemo- as well as immunotherapy, were observed during the course of remission but not shortly before relapse. The extent to which peripheral lymphocytes could be stimulated varied noticeably from one patient to another and mostly increased with the progress of remission; however, to date no correlation to the clinical course was evident.