Prediction of remission in adult acute leukemia: development and testing of predictive models

Logistic regression methods were applied to derive a set of models relating achievement of CR to prognostic characteristics in a group of 300 adult acute leukemia patients treated with cytosine arabinoside, vincristine, and prednisone combined with adriamycin (ADOAP) or rubidazone (ROAP). These models were tested prospectively in an independent group of 107 subsequent patients treated with ADOAP or ROAP therapy, by comparing observed outcomes to predictions of response based on the models. Several models were able to identify subgroups of patients with good, intermediate, and poor prognoses. A model regarded as clinically useful and which provided a good fit to both the population from which it was derived and the test population included the pretreatment factors age, history of an antecedent hematologic disorder, temperature, blood urea nitrogen, hemoglobin, and liver size.