Decitabine combined with medium-dose cytarabine in the treatment of DEK/CAN-positive acute myeloid leukemia: a case report.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a malignant clonal hematopoietic stem cell disease. Although there are many therapeutic options, it is still an incurable hematological malignancy. Moreover, the prognosis of AML is closely related to its cytogenetics and molecular biology. The DEK/CAN fusion gene formed by t (6;9)(p23;q34) occurs with an incidence of 1-5% in adult patients with AML usually indicates a poor prognosis. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can prolong the disease-free survival rate of patients with AML positive for DEK/CAN fusion gene, and the development of new drugs is still one of the hotspots of clinical research. Herein, we reported the first case with DEK/CAN-positive AML who achieved complete remission of molecular biology via decitabine combined with a medium-dose cytarabine regimen. The patient has received three courses of intensive treatment with decitabine combined with medium-dose cytarabine regimen and maintain complete remission of molecular biology for up to 11 months. We hypothesized that the combination of decitabine and medium-dose cytarabine play an important role in targeting DEK/CAN and it should be verified by the accumulation of clinical cases and basic experiments in the future.