OBJECTIVETo explore the therapeutic efficacy for patients aged over 70 years with acute myeloid leukemia(non-APL).

METHODSClinical data of 19 acute myeloid leukemia patients aged over 70 years admitted in our hospital from March 2006 to April 2016 years were analyzed retrospectively. Among them 15 patients received priming regimen and 4 patients received best supportive treatment. The overall survival time between patients with priming regimen and patients with best supportine treatment was compared by Kaplan-Meier analysis. The prognostic factors were evaluated by using multivariate analysis. Out of the 19 patients, 9 were males and 10 were females, with median age of 75 years (70-84).

RESULTSAfter 2 cycles of induction chemotherapy, the complete response rate was (7/15)46.6% and overall response rate was (11/15) 73%. Significant longer median survival time was observed in priming regimen group, compared with that in best supportive treatment group (11 months vs 2 months)(χ=17.077, P<0.001). The patients were well tolerant to side-effect of chemotherapy. Multivariate analysis showed that only receiving induction chemotherapy or not was the independent prognostic factor of the survival time(P<0.05), while the sex, age, ECOG index, CD34, HLA-DR, WBC count and ratio of blast cells in bone marrow were factor affecting the prognosis.

CONCLUSIONThe priming regimen may be practicable and effective for the treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia aged over 70 years (non-APL) and prolong the survival time of these patients.