FUNDAMENTALS OF CHEMO-DIFFERENTIATION THERAPY OF MYELOID-LEUKEMIA

It has been shown recently that var-lolls myeloid leukemia cells can b e induced by numerous compounds to differentiate ter; terminally into non-growing mature cells. Furthermore, some of these compounds have be en found to be clinically useful for the therapy of certain types of m yeloid leukemia. To improve this new method of differentiation therapy of leukemia, we have studied on basic issues of such differentiation therapy including 1) development of more effective new inducers of dif ferentiation of leukemia cells, 2) isolation and characterization of c ytokines regulating growth and differentiation of leukemia cells, and 3) rationale for chemo-differentiaiton therapy of leukemia which is a combination chemotherapy of leukemia with differentiation inducers and cytotoxic anticancer drugs. In this article, recent results of our st udies on these basic Issues on differentiation therapy of leukemia are reviewed.