Abstract
Seventy-two patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APML) were treated at St.Bartholomew's Hospital (SBH) over a 25-year period. Improvements in supportive care and the use of more intensive chemotherapy have led to an increase in the complete remission rate from 14 to 58%. Similarly, the median survival has increased from 3 weeks to 2 years; the median duration of remission, which was 7 months in 1974, has not yet been reached. There was also a significant difference in survival from first recurrence, compared with that of patients with other subtypes of acute myeloid leukemia. RT-PCR analysis on bone marrow samples from 14 patients confirmed the presence of the PML/RARA fusion; 13 of the 14 patients achieved 'molecular remission' after therapy. The one patient who remained persistently positive experienced recurrence within 4 months. In seven of the eight patients in whom the disease recurred, the translocation was identified by RT-PCR at the time of relapse, whilst in one patient it was noted 4 months prior to morphological recurrence. These results illustrate the improvement in prognosis that occurred over a 25-year period in patients with APML treated at a single centre.
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Received: August 13, 1998 / Accepted: November 18, 1998
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Slater, S., Carter, M., Howe, K. et al. Acute promyelocytic leukaemia: a retrospective analysis of patients treated at St. Bartholomew's Hospital 1969–1995. Ann Hematol 78, 131–137 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002770050489
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002770050489