Idarubicin plus continuous-infusion high-dose cytarabine as treatment for patients with acute myelogenous leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome.

Combination therapy with idarubicin plus continuous-infusion, high-dose cytarabine in patients with newly diagnosed acute myelogenous leukemia resulted in an improved complete response rate over historic controls who received either (1) Adriamycin or amsacrine in combination with standard-dose cytarabine or (2) continuous-infusion, high-dose cytarabine alone or in combination with amsacrine or mitoxantrone. The complete response rate in patients with acute myelogenous leukemia was similar to that in patients with refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation.