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What is the Standard Regimen for Patients with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia?

  • Acute Leukemias (F Ravandi, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Modern guidelines based on a large international consensus indicate that treatment of newly diagnosed acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) requires distinguishing at presentation low-intermediate (<10 × 109/L WBC) from high-risk (>10 × 109/L WBC) disease. The concomitant use of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and anthracycline based chemotherapy, with inclusion of AraC in consolidation for hyperleucocytic patients, has remained the standard of care for the past two decades. The advent of arsenic trioxide (ATO) and results from a large randomized trial, have recently challenged the standard ATRA-chemotherapy approach suggesting that at least patients in the low-intermediate category may be cured without chemotherapy using the ATRA-ATO combination.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of outstanding importance

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Conflict of Interest

Dr. Francesco Lo-Coco reports personal fees from Teva during the conduct of the study.

Dr. Laura Cicconi declares no potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133, Rome, Italy

    Francesco Lo-Coco & Laura Cicconi

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  1. Francesco Lo-Coco
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  2. Laura Cicconi
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Correspondence to Francesco Lo-Coco.

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Lo-Coco, F., Cicconi, L. What is the Standard Regimen for Patients with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia?. Curr Hematol Malig Rep 9, 138–143 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11899-014-0206-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11899-014-0206-5

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