The treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia in blastic crisis with the chemotherapy incorporating vindesine-prednisolone.

Abstract

Twenty-three patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in terminal transformation were treated with regimen incorporating vindesine and prednisolone with or without cytosine arabinoside. Twenty-one patients in blastic crisis (BC) were classified into subgroups on the blast cell morphology. Of these 21 patients, 5 (23.8%) had lymphoid morphology, 12 (57.2%) had myeloid morphology, and 4 (19.0%) had monocytoid morphology. All of five patients with lymphoid morphology and ten of twelve patients with myeloid morphology achieved complete remission (83.3%), while none of four patients with monocytoid morphology achieved complete remission. Two patients in accelerated phase also attained complete remission. Our results indicate that the regimens incorporating vindesine and prednisolone with or without cytosine arabinoside should be the treatment of choice in CML-BC both lymphoid and myeloid morphology and accelerated phase of CML as well.