Decitabine in combination with G-CSF, low-dose cytarabine and aclarubicin is as effective as standard dose chemotherapy in the induction treatment for patients aged from 55 to 69 years old with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia

Abstract

We retrospectively studied 87 patients aged from 55 to 69 years old with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who received decitabine in combination with G-CSF, low-dose cytarabine and aclarubicin (DCAG) or standard dose chemotherapy as induction therapy. Patients receiving DCAG had a similar overall response rate (ORR) (p = .6105) and complete remission (CR) rate (p = .3615) compared to those undergoing standard induction. The median overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) was also similar between the two groups although more ‘older’ (aged from 60 to 69 years old) and ‘unfit’ patients underwent DCAG regimen. Notably, patients in DCAG group experienced significantly fewer infections (75 versus 100%, p = .001). Moreover recovery of platelet count was significantly more rapid in DCAG group. Thus we speculate DCAG is possibly a feasible and safe treatment regimen for the relatively older patients with AML and is as effective as standard induction.

Keywords:

• Acute myeloid leukemia
• DCAG
• standard dose induction

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of the People’s Republic of China [Grant Nos. 81070437, 81270614, 81300379, 81370656, and 81570134], National Public Health Grand Research Foundation [Grant No. 201202017], A Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institute [Grant No. JX10231801] and Key Project of Jiangsu Province Health Agency [Grant No. K201107].

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2018.1443328.