Minimally myelosuppressive regimen for remission induction in pediatric AML: long-term results of an observational study.

Treatment refusal and death as a result of toxicity account for most treatment failures among children with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in resource-constrained settings. We recently reported the results of treating children with AML with a combination of low-dose cytarabine and mitoxantrone or omacetaxine mepesuccinate with concurrent granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) (low-dose chemotherapy [LDC]) for remission induction followed by standard postremission strategies. We have now expanded the initial cohort and have provided long-term follow-up. Eighty-three patients with AML were treated with the LDC regimen. During the study period, another 100 children with AML received a standard-dose chemotherapy (SDC) regimen. Complete remission was attained in 88.8% and 86.4% of patients after induction in the LDC and SDC groups, respectively (P = .436). Twenty-two patients in the LDC group received SDC for the second induction course. Significantly more high-risk AML patients were treated with the SDC regimen (P = .035). There were no significant differences between the LDC and SDC groups in 5-year event-free survival (61.4% ± 8.7% vs 65.2% ± 7.4%, respectively; P = .462), overall survival (72.7% ± 6.9% vs 72.5% ± 6.2%, respectively; P = .933), and incidence of relapse (20.5% ± 4.5% vs 17.6% ± 3.9%, respectively; P = .484). Clearance of mutations based on the average variant allele frequency at complete remission in the LDC and SDC groups was 1.9% vs 0.6% (P < .001) after induction I and 0.17% vs 0.078% (P = .052) after induction II. In conclusion, our study corroborated the high remission rate reported for children with AML who received at least 1 course of LDC. The results, although preliminary, also suggest that long-term survival of these children is comparable to that of children who receive SDC regimens.