[Long-term oral administration of etoposide (VP-16) for the patients with refractory or relapsed acute non-lymphocytic leukemia].

: We investigated the efficacy of oral etoposide (VP-16) for the patients with acute non-lymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) in relapse or refractory to the standard chemotherapy. Patients were given etoposide orally at the dose of 50 mg/body/day on consecutive days until the leukemic cells in the bone marrow were reduced less than 5%. The duration of administration of oral etoposide ranged from 16 days to 50 days (average 30 days). Seven patients were given very low dose cytosine arabinoside (5 approximately 10 mg X 2/day i.s.c.) combination with oral etoposide. Six patients (66.7%) out of 9 achieved complete remission (CR) and 3 patients had no response. Adverse effects such as abdominal discomfort and appetite loss were observed in 3 patients, but they were mild and tolerable. The duration of CR ranged from 2 to 24 (+) months, and the median CR duration is 7 months. The over all CR rate (66.7%) in this group of patients with refractory or relapsed ANLL were encouraging. Further studies, however, are needed to evaluate the efficacy of long term oral administration of etoposide for the patients with leukemia.