Vitamin A Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Vitamin A, including details on retinol, benefits, dosage, supplements, deficiency, information.

Reinduction of relapsed acute promyelocytic leukemia with ATRA and low dose antimetabolite-based chemotherapy.

Dvorak CC, Sanders RP, Dahl GV, Donaldson SS, Razzouk BI

Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California 94304, USA. cdvorak@stanford.edu

While the disease-free survival of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APML) now approaches 75%, some children continue to experience relapses, and questions remain as to the optimal management of these patients. We describe two young children who experienced combined relapses in the bone marrow and extramedullary locations following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). An induction regimen, consisting of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), methotrexate, and 6-mercaptopurine (6MP), successfully and safely achieved hematologic remission in one patient and molecular remission in the other. These cases demonstrate that there is a role for ATRA plus differentiating chemotherapy other than arsenic trioxide in the treatment of relapsed APML.

Published 8 March 2007 in Pediatr Blood Cancer, 48(5): 582-5.
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