Long Term Low Dose Maintenance Chemotherapy in the Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia

In this study the effect of low dose long-term maintenance chemotherapy in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was evaluated. Following a complete remission two consolidation courses were given with the same drugs. Thereafter patients received low dose maintenance chemotherapy in every four weeks until disease relapsed or for up to two years. A total of 68 patients were evaluated. The median duration of remission of 22.5 months in patients who received maintenance chemotherapy while it was only 7 months in those without maintenance chemotherapy after a median follow-up time of 71 months, which was significant. Overall survival (OS) was also significantly longer in patients with maintenance therapy. Similar results were also obtained in comparison of patients over 60. Thus, it was concluded that maintenance therapy might be beneficial
for older AML patients with limited therapy choice.