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Supportive Care for Patients with Leukemia: A Historical Perspective

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Neoplastic Diseases of the Blood

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Abstract

Once upon a time, the delivery of therapy to patients with acute leukemia was profoundly constrained by problems with venous access, life threatening infections due to unavailability of effective and non-toxic broad spectrum antibiotics and anti-fungal agents, hemorrhage due to a lack of readily available high quality platelet transfusions, severe vomiting resulting in weight loss and inanition, and a considerable risk of hepatitis from blood product transfusions. Indeed, the therapeutic nihilism which permeated the medical literature in the late 1960s and early 1970s derived as much from doubts about the ability to keep patients alive following chemotherapy as from skepticism about the effectiveness of the chemotherapy itself. In fact, the current “standard” chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), so-called “3 & 7” (anthracycline and cytarabine), and multi-agent therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is essentially identical to what was used and developed in the 1970s.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oncology, Karmanos Cancer Institute, Wayne State University School of Medicine, 4100 John R., HWCR 4th Floor, Detroit, MI, 48201, USA

    Charles A. Schiffer M.D.

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  1. Charles A. Schiffer M.D.
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Correspondence to Charles A. Schiffer M.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Beth Israel Hospital, Cancer Center, St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital Center, 10th Avenue 1000, New York, 10019, New York, USA

    Peter H. Wiernik

  2. , Department of Hematology, Imperial College of London, Du Cane Road 150, London, W12 0NN, United Kingdom

    John M. Goldman

  3. Continuum Cancer Centers, Department of Medicine, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, 10th Avenue 1000, New York, 10019, New York, USA

    Janice P. Dutcher

  4. , Division of Hematology, Mayo Clinic, First Street SW. 200, Rochester, 55905, Minnesota, USA

    Robert A. Kyle

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Schiffer, C.A. (2013). Supportive Care for Patients with Leukemia: A Historical Perspective. In: Wiernik, P., Goldman, J., Dutcher, J., Kyle, R. (eds) Neoplastic Diseases of the Blood. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3764-2_50

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3764-2_50

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