Results of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treated with Triple-Drug Regimen Based on HA as Induction Chemotherapy and Its Relationship with Karyotype.

243 untreated de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients were treated with (homoharringtonine+AraC, HA) based induction therapy which composing of three chemotherapeutic drugs (HAD, HAM, HAA, HAE) in our hospital for recent 12 years. Complete remission (CR) rate, disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of the patients were calculated. 184 patients who had karyotype results were divided into four groups according to SWOG (Southwestern Oncology Group) criteria. Differences of CR rate, DFS and OS of different groups were evaluated. The CR rate of all 243 cases was 77.4%, and 94.6% out of them were for 1~2 courses. Median DFS of the 188 CR patients was 28.5 (range from 1.0 to 153) months. DFS rates at 3 years and 5 years were 45.4%, 40.2% respectively. The median OS of 243 patients was 18.4 (range from 0.5 to 154) months. OS rates at 3 years and 5 years were 36.9%, 31.4% respectively. CR rate, DFS and OS of the different cytogenetic risk groups were also be analyzed. According to SWOG criteria, patients were classified into favorable, intermediate, adverse and unknown groups. CR rate, median DFS and OS were 97.8%, 87.4 months and 89.0 months in favorable group; 81.9%, 17.6 months and 22.3 months in intermediate group; 61.5%, 9 months and 11.5 months in the adverse group; 79.3%, 29.0 months, 19.9 months in the unknown group, respectively. The differences among the four groups were statistically significant. Multivariates analyses confirmed contribution of cytogenetics and courses of post-remission chemotherapy to DFS and OS. If we incorporated unknown group into the intermediate group, the CR rate is 80.6%. DFS rates at 3 years and 5 years were 40.5%, 38.1% respectively. OS rates at 3 years and 5 years were 40.3%, 37.4% respectively. We conclude triple-drugs induction regimens based on HA are highly effective in adult AML in China. Cytogenetics is the important prognostic factor. SWOG karyotype subtyping criteria is appropriate to our patients and unknown group can be incorporated into the intermediate group.