Treatment of blastic phase chronic myeloid leukemia with mitoxantrone, cytosine arabinoside and high dose methylprednisolone.

Fourteen patients with blastic phase chronic myelogenous leukemia received combination chemotherapy with mitoxantrone 5 mg/m2 intravenously daily for 3 days, cytosine arabinoside 100 mg/m2 intravenously over 2 hours bid for 7 days and high dose methylprednisolone 1000 mg/day intravenously for 5 days. The patients' mean age was 52 +/- 10 (range 34-64) and Philadelphia chromosome was positive in all. Five patients (35%) achieved complete remission and four patients (28%) had a partial remission. Overall remission rate was 64%. The mean survival was 11.1 +/- 8.6 months (median 13) for all patients, 19.4 +/- 4.0 months (median 19) for those achieving a complete remission, 12.50 +/- 5.7 months (median 14) for patients with partial remission and 1.8 +/- 1.8 months (median 2) for the unresponsive patients. Two of 5 unresponsive patients died early after the second course of remission induction. The treatment regimen was generally well tolerated. Marrow hypoplasia was observed in 9 (64%) patients and 7 (50%) had febrile episodes. Non-myelosupressive toxicity of the regimen was acceptable. Nausea and vomiting were observed in 8 (57%) patients and 3 (21%) patients developed flushing due to cytosine arabinoside. These results suggest that the regimen with mitoxantrone, cytosine arabinoside and high dose methylprednisolone in remission-induction of blastic phase chronic myelogenous leukemia may be a valid option that may also improve overall prognosis.