Abstract
Differentiation therapy with all-trans retinoic acid significantly improved the outcome of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL).Therefore, researchers are still exploring the possibility of differentiation therapy for patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) other than APL. On the other hand, based on in vitro experiments on induction of differentiation of mouse myeloid leukemic cells with certain steroid hormones, we have demonstrated that short-course (3 to 7 days) high-dose methylprednisolone (HDMP) treatment can induce terminal differentiation of leukemic cells in children with APL and in other subtypes of AML (AML-M1, AML-M2, AML-M4 and AML-M7). HDMP treatment has also been shown to induce apoptosis of myeloid leukemic cells in vivo and in vitro.
Highlights
Acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) is characterized by the accumulation of immature myeloid cells, which lose their ability to differentiate into normal mature cells
Differentiation therapy with all-trans retinoic acid significantly improved the outcome of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)
Researchers are still exploring the possibility of differentiation therapy for patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) other than APL
Summary
Acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) is characterized by the accumulation of immature myeloid cells, which lose their ability to differentiate into normal mature cells. The addition of HDMP to chemotherapy increased the complete remission rate to 89% and prolonged the duration of remission in newly diagnosed children with AML and improved the outcome of patients who had myeloid tumor.
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