Efficacy and safety of the HAA regimen as induction chemotherapy in 236 de novo acute myeloid leukemia

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of the HAA regimen (homoharringtonine, cytarabine and aclarubicin) as induction chemotherapy in de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML). METHODS: The efficacy and safety of 236 de novo AML patients who received the HAA regimen as induction chemotherapy were retrospectively analyzed. The complete remission (CR) rate was assayed. Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate overall survival (OS) and relapse free survival (RFS), and the differences were compared by Log-rank test. RESULTS: The overall CR rate was 78.0%, and 65.7% of the patients attained CR in the first induction cycle. The early death rate was 4.7%. The median followup time was 41(1-161) months. The estimated 5-year OS and 5-year RFS rates were 44.9% and 45.5%, respectively. The CR rates of patients with favorable, intermediate and unfavorable cytogenetics were 92.9%,78.6%and 41.7%, respectively. The 5-year OS of favorable and intermediate group were 61.1% and 45.1%, respectively. The 5- year RFS of favorable and intermediate group were 49.0% and 45.4%, respectively. The median survival time of unfavorable group was only 5 months. The side effects associated with the HAA regimen were tolerable, in which the most common toxicities were myelosuppression and infection. CONCLUSION: The HAA regimen is associated with a higher rate of CR and longer survival time and its toxicity could be tolerated.