Phase III Open-Label Randomized Study of Cytarabine in Combination With Amonafide L-Malate or Daunorubicin As Induction Therapy for Patients With Secondary Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Purpose Secondary acute myeloid leukemia (sAML), defined as AML arising after a prior myelodysplastic syndrome or after antineoplastic therapy, responds poorly to current therapies. It is often associated with adverse karyotypic abnormalities and overexpression of proteins that mediate drug resistance. We performed a phase III trial to determine whether induction therapy with cytarabine and amonafide L-malate, a DNA intercalator and non–ATP-dependent topoisomerase II inhibitor that evades drug resistance mechanisms, yielded a superior complete remission rate than standard therapy with cytarabine and daunorubicin in sAML. Patients and Methods Patients with previously untreated sAML were randomly assigned at a one-to-one ratio to cytarabine 200 mg/m2 continuous intravenous (IV) infusion once per day on days 1 to 7 plus either amonafide 600 mg/m2 IV over 4 hours on days 1 to 5 (A + C arm) or daunorubicin 45 mg/m2 IV over 30 minutes once per day on days 1 to 3 (D + C arm). Results The complete remission (CR) ...