Intensive Post-Remission Induction Chemotherapy for Acute Myelogenous Leukemia in Children and Adults

Major progress in the treatment of AML has occurred during the past decade.1, 2 The higher complete remission rates for patients with AML can be attributed to advances in the application of chemotherapy, better supportive care, and carefully designed clinical trials. The median duration of complete remission and the percentage of patients surviving for 5 or more years has steadily improved. This has resulted from post-remission induction chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy and transplantation of bone marrow from histocompatible donors.3–10 The intensity and duration of the postremission induction chemotherapy as well as the merits of marrow transplantation versus chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with AML in first remission have been the focus of recent clinical investigations.11–13