INTERFERON IN THE SUPPRESSION OF PHILADEL PHIA-CHROMOSOME OF CHRONIC MYELOID-LEUKEMIA

Objective. To evaluate if human recombinant interferon alpha(IFN) comb ined whit chemoterapy is able to supress the Philadelphia chromosome c lone in patients with crhonic myeloid leukemia (CML). Material and met hods. The cytogenetic evolution in 53 patients with CML in chronic pha se de novo was studied. They received one of three treatment schemes: a) induction of remission with daunorrubicin, vincristine, cytocine ar abinose and prednisone (DOAP) and maintenance with IFN (n = 12); b) in duction with busulfan (BUS) or hydroxiurea (HYDX) and maintenance with IFN (n = 26); c) induction with DOAP and mainteinance with BUS (n = 1 5). Results. The remission was seen two to six months after the start of treatment: 10 had complete remission, six a partial one, 14 a minor remission and 23 none. The 16 with complete or partial response recei ved treatment with IFN. None of the 15 cases maintained with BUS had c omplete or partial response. The proportion of cases with complete res ponse (3/12) was slightly lower in patients treated with intensive che motherapy (BUS/HIDX/IFN) than in those receiving conventional treatmen t (7/26). Conclusions. Our results showed that: a) IFN in combination with chemotherapy induced partial or complete response in 30% of our c ases; and b) intensive chemotherapy combined with IFN was not superior in terms of a cytogenetic response to treatment with monodrugs (BUS/H IDX) and IFN.