[Recruiting patients and results of a preliminary study on the therapy of acute lymphatic leukemia and acute undifferentiated leukemia in adults].

The aim of the study was to improve remission quality through application of an intensified induction therapy successful in childhood ALL; in a modified form for patients of 15-35 years and in a reduced form for patients of greater than 35-65 years with ALL or AUL. The 8-week induction therapy consists of two phases. In phase I, prednisone, vincristine, daunorubicin, and L-asparaginase are given and in phase II, cyclophosphamide, cytosine-arabinoside, and 6-mercaptopurinee. As CNS-prophylaxis, intrathecal methotrexate, and CNS-irradiation with 24 Gy are used. After 3 months a re-induction therapy similar to the induction therapy is given with dexamethasone and adriamycin instead of prednisone and daunorubicin and without L-asparaginase. Maintenance therapy with 6-mercaptopurin and methotrexate follows over a period of 2 years. Since the formation of the study group in 1979 up to 30.06.81, 170 patients from 25 hospitals with newly diagnosed ALL or AUL were treated according to the protocol. Up to 30.11.81, 162 patients had completed treatment and were evaluable. Of these, 77.8% achieved complete remission, 80.7% in the age group 15-35 years and 68.3% in the age group greater than 35-65 years. The median survival time for all patients was 24 months and for the 126 patients with complete remission the median has not yet been reached (last observation 31 months). The median remission duration is 20 months. Prognostic factors for remission duration are (1) the number of chemotherapy courses required to reach complete remission, (2) the immunological subtype, (3) age and (4) initial leukocyte count.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)