Jd. White et al., The combination of zidovudine and interferon alpha-2B in the treatment of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma, LEUK LYMPH, 40(3-4), 2001, pp. 287-294
Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) is frequently a very aggressive malign
ancy with a poor survival despite aggressive multiagent chemotherapy. The c
ombination of the antiretroviral drug zidovudine (AZT) and inrterferon alph
a (IFN alpha) has been reported to induce remissions in patients with ATL.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical response and toxicit
y following administration of a combination of IFN alpha -2b and AZT in pat
ients with human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I)-associated ATL.
Eighteen patients with ATL (chronic. crisis, acute or lymphoma type) were t
reated with the combination of AZT (50 - 200 mg orally 5 times it day) and
IFN alpha -2b (2.5 - 10 million units subcutaneously daily).
Three patients had objective responses lasting more than one month. One pat
ient had a clinical complete remission. lasting 21.6 months and two patient
s had partial remissions lasting 3.7 and 26.5 months. Six patients were not
considered evaluable for response due to short and/or interrupted periods
of treatment. Seventeen patients have died with a median survival rime afte
r initiation of therapy of 6 months. Neutropenia and thrombocytopenia were
the dose limiting toxicities. In conclusion, the response rate in this stud
y was lower than noted in the two previous published series. This may be du
e to the amount and type of prior treatment our patients had received.