[Cytosine-arabinoside in high doses in refractory acute granulocytic leukemia. Apropos of 17 cases].

A total of 17 patients, 6 female and 11 male (age range 13 to 56 years), received high dose Ara-C for treatment of refractory acute myelogenous leukemia. Ara-C was given at 3 g/m2 twice daily for 6 days as a 1 infusion. 1 patient (with induced acute leukemia) was treated directly, two after failure of a chemotherapy schedule containing the usual dose Ara-C, 12 for first relapse and 2 for subsequent relapse. Maximum follow up is 16 months. Beside hematological toxicity, systemic tolerance was good with no neurological of cutaneous effects. Despite preventive corticoid eyewash, ocular complications occurred in 6 cases, mild and resolvable in 5 of them. The immediate results were as follows: 3 deaths during induction (18%); 6 failures (35%); 8 complete remissions (CR) (47%). After primary chemo-resistance (two cases) failure was always noted. In 3 cases, after less than 12 infusions had been given, 2 failures and 1 very short CR were noted. In 2 patients, when doxorubicin was added to Ara-C, we observed 1 death during induction and 1 failure. Of the patients achieving CR 8 were treated by periodic courses with high dose Ara-C and 4 of them relapsed. The longest failure free duration was 11 months. Median survival duration of the 17 patients is 5 months.