The impact of the percentage of residual leukemic cells (RLCs) at the end of first course of induction chemotherapy (T1) or during aplasia (T2) on complete remission (CR) rate, disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) were retrospectively analyzed in 72 cases of de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML) treated with HAD (homoharringtonine, cytosine arabinoside, and daunorubicin) regimen. The patients were separated into two subgroups by a cutoff of 10% bone marrow leukemic cells at T1 or T2 time point. The CR rate, DFS, and OS were significantly different between the two groups. We further confirmed that the percentage of RLCs at T1 or T2 is an independent prognostic factor of AML.
(c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.