OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical features of acute myeloid leukemia patients with hemophagocytic syndrome. METHODS: The clinical data of 2 patients with acute myeloid leukemia complicated with hemophagocytic syndrome were collected, and the clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes were analyzed. RESULTS: There were two patients with acute myeloid leukemia, including 1 male and 1 female，aged for 67 and 40 years old，respectively. Hemophagocytic syndrome occurred in one patient after induction therapy for acute myeloid leukemia and one patient after consolidation therapy. Both of the patients with hemophagocytic syndrome showed fever, hemocytopenia, high ferritin, high titer sCD25 levels and hemophagocytes in bone marrow. After achieved anti-infection, glucocorticoid, human immunoglobulin and etoposide regimens treatment, hemophagocytic syndrome was controlled in both of the two patients. One patient failed to induce acute myeloid leukemia and one patient achieved complete remission. CONCLUSION Acute myeloid leukemia complicated with hemophagocytic syndrome is rare. Early identification, early anti-infection combined with HLH94 regimen can control hemophagocytosis and improve prognosis.
Aged ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; Bone Marrow ; Female ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute/drug therapy* ; Lymphohistiocytosis, Hemophagocytic/complications* ; Male ; Prognosis ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVETo summarize the clinical characteristics, laboratory findings and prognosis of patients with Down syndrome-related acute leukemia (DS-AL).

METHODSThe clinical data, laboratory findings, chemotherapy and prognosis of 21 children with DS-AL were analyzed.

RESULTSMost of the children had disease onset of leukemia at 1 to 5 years of age (85.7%), and acute myeloid leukemia accounted for 57.1% of these cases; 61.9% of the patients had increased lactate dehydrogenase level by 2 folds or more. Of the 13 cases undergoing echocardiaography, 10 (67.9%) showed abnormal findings, and complex congenital heart disease was common (38.5%). Six of the children received chemotherapy and complete remission was achieved in 4 cases; 2 patients died of infection, and the treatment-related mortality was 33.3%. The 2 patients receiving reduced intensive chemotherapy have so far had event-free survival for 21 and 43 months.

CONCLUSIONAcute myeloid leukemia is the most common subtype of DS-AL. Patients with DS-AL are sensitive to chemotherapy and the prognosis was favorable with reduced intensive chemotherapy.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; Child, Preschool ; Disease-Free Survival ; Down Syndrome ; complications ; Humans ; Infant ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; complications ; drug therapy ; Prognosis ; Remission Induction

BACKGROUNDRapid clearance of peripheral blood blasts (PBBs) predicts complete remission (CR) and survival in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We aimed to explore the correlation between induction therapy response, outcome, and the PBB percentage.

METHODSForty-six consecutive patients with de novo AML (excluding acute promyelocytic leukemia) were enrolled in this study. Flow cytometry was performed to identify cells with a leukemia-associated aberrant immunophenotype in the initial bone marrow aspirate and in peripheral blood on day 7 of induction therapy.

RESULTSThe PBB percentage on day 7 (D7PBBP) was significantly lower in patients who achieved CR (0.03% (0.0%, 0.45%)) than in those who did not (10.85% (1.13%, 19.38%); u = -3.92, P < 0.001). The CR rate was significantly higher among patients with a D7PBBP of <0.945% (84.62%, 22/26) than among those with a D7PBBP of = 0.945% (25.0%, 5/20; χ2 = 16.571, P < 0.001). D7PBBP was significantly correlated with overall survival (OS; r = -0.437, P = 0.003) and relapsefree survival (RFS; r = -0.388, P = 0.007). OS and RFS were significantly higher in patients with a D7PBBP of <0.43% than in those with a D7PBBP of ≥ 0.43% (P < 0.001 and P = 0.039, respectively). D7PBBP was also found to be an independent prognostic indicator in multivariate analysis for both OS (P = 0.036) and RFS (P = 0.035).

CONCLUSIOND7PBBP may be an important risk factor for the achievement of complete remission, for overall survival, and for relapse-free survival.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Antineoplastic Agents ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; Blast Crisis ; complications ; drug therapy ; Child ; Cytarabine ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Flow Cytometry ; Humans ; Idarubicin ; therapeutic use ; Immunophenotyping ; Induction Chemotherapy ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; drug therapy ; mortality ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; drug therapy ; Young Adult

No abstract available.
Aged ; Ampicillin/therapeutic use ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use ; Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic/therapeutic use ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Cytarabine/therapeutic use ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Humans ; Idarubicin/therapeutic use ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute/complications/*diagnosis/drug therapy ; Male ; Moraxella/genetics/*isolation & purification ; Moraxellaceae Infections/*diagnosis/drug therapy/microbiology ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/chemistry/genetics ; Republic of Korea ; Respiratory Tract Infections/diagnosis/microbiology ; Sequence Analysis, RNA ; Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization ; Sulbactam/therapeutic use

Sphingobacterium spiritivorum has been rarely isolated from clinical specimens of immunocompromised patients, and there have been no case reports of S. spiritivorum infection in Korea to our knowledge. We report a case of S. spiritivorum bacteremia in a 68-yr-old woman, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and subsequently received chemotherapy. One day after chemotherapy ended, her body temperature increased to 38.3degrees C. A gram-negative bacillus was isolated in aerobic blood cultures and identified as S. spiritivorum by an automated biochemical system. A 16S rRNA sequencing analysis confirmed that the isolate was S. spiritivorum. The patient received antibiotic therapy for 11 days but died of septic shock. This is the first reported case of human S. spiritivorum infection in Korea. Although human infection is rare, S. spiritivorum can be a fatal opportunistic pathogen in immunocompromised patients.
Aged ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use ; Bacteremia/*complications/drug therapy/*microbiology ; Bone Marrow Cells/pathology ; Fatal Outcome ; Female ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute/*complications ; Phylogeny ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Shock, Septic/etiology/microbiology ; Sphingobacterium/classification/genetics/isolation & purification/*physiology

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; therapeutic use ; Azacitidine ; administration & dosage ; analogs & derivatives ; Female ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; drug therapy ; etiology ; Male ; Myelodysplastic Syndromes ; complications ; pathology ; Treatment Outcome

Female ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; complications ; etiology ; Middle Aged ; Myelodysplastic Syndromes ; complications ; etiology ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms ; complications ; drug therapy ; radiotherapy

This is a case report on a 35-year-old man with acute myelogenous leukemia who presented fever and intermittent mucoid loose stool to the emergency center. He had been taking voriconazole for invasive pulmonary aspergillosis. The flexible sigmoidoscopy was consistent with the diagnosis of pseudomembranous colitis.
Adult ; Antifungal Agents/*adverse effects ; Enterocolitis, Pseudomembranous/*chemically induced/pathology ; Humans ; Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis/complications/drug therapy ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute/complications ; Male ; Opportunistic Infections/complications/drug therapy ; Pyrimidines/*adverse effects ; Triazoles/*adverse effects

This study was aimed to investigate the efficacy of moderate intensity regimen, CHG (homoharringtonine, cytarabine and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)) on the patients with high-risk MDS or MDS-transformed acute myeloid leukemia. 30 newly diagnosed adult patients with high-risk MDS or MDS-transformed AML were enrolled in this clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of sequential low-dose homoharringtonine/cytarabine chemotherapy combined with G-CSF priming. Homoharringtonine and Ara-C were injected intravenously at doses of 1 mg and 25 mg daily for 14 consecutive days respectively, G-CSF was injected subcutaneously once daily at a dose of 300 microg on 12 hours prior to chemotherapy and continued given until the end of chemotherapy or when the peripheral WBC count reached > 20 x 10(9)/L. This regimen was given only for one course, and followed by conventional chemotherapy as maintenance or consolidation therapy when CR achieved. 33 patients with high- risk MDS and MDS-transformed AML were injected aclarubicin/Ara-C intravenously at doses of 10 mg and 25 mg for 8 and 14 consecutive days respectively, G-CSF was used at the same dose and the same way as the CHG regimen. 33 patients with high-risk MDS and MDS-transformed AML were treated with HHT/Ara-C intravenously at doses of 2 - 3 mg and 100 - 150 mg daily for 7 consecutive days respectively, G-CSF was injected when WBC count was below 4 x 10(9)/L, and it was stopped to be used when WBC count was > 4 x 10(9)/L. The results showed that (1) 14 patients achieved complete remission (CR) (46.67 %) and 7 patients achieved partial remission (PR) (23.33 %) with one course of CHG regimen, total effective rate was 70%; 14 patient achieved CR (42.4%) and 9 patients achieved PR (27.3%) with one course of CAG regimen, total effective rate was 69.7%; 7 patient achieved CR (33.3%) and 3 patients achieved PR (9.1%) with one course of HA regimen, total effective rate was 42.4%. There was no statistical difference between the effective rate of CHG and CAG, but difference was significant between CHG and HA. (2) Agranulocytosis (neutrophil < 0.5 x 10(9)/L) occurred in 12 cases (40%) of CHG-treated patients with a mean 8 days of agranulocytic period, so the infectious complications were less serious and tolerable without treatment-related death. (3) Among 14 out of 30 patients with CR, 9 relapsed, the mean duration from CR to replace was 8.2 months. All relapsed patients reusing CHG regimen did not achieved CR again. (4) Among 13 cases with CR, 6 patients just received HA or DA regimens as consolidatory and intensive chemotherapy after CR have relapsed, the mean CR time was only 6.1 months. Otherwise, the mean CR time of 7 CR patients received alternative succeeded chemotherapy containing mitoxantrone/idarubicin/THP/homoharringtonine/daunorubicin/aclarubicin after CR was 10.6 months; and among them 4 are still in continuous CR. It is concluded that the CHG chemotherapy regimen has a similar effect with CAG but better than HA, and in a saft chemotherapy regimen with slight myelosuppression in clinical application, strong and alternative succeeded chemotherapy is necessary for CR patients to keep longer CR and survival.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Antineoplastic Agents ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; Cytarabine ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Harringtonines ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; drug therapy ; etiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myelodysplastic Syndromes ; complications ; drug therapy ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo study the antifungal treatment and intensive chemotherapy in children with acute leukemia and invasive aspergillosis.

METHODSThe diagnosis and treatment of 4 cases of childhood acute leukemia complicated by invasive aspergillosis between July 2007 and July 2008 were studied retrospectively.

RESULTSThree children who underwent remission induction chemotherapy for ALL and one who underwent consolidation chemotherapy for AML developed invasive aspergillosis. One child with proven aspergillosis and 3 with possible aspergillosis all had halo sign on CT at diagnosis. Voriconazole or amphotericin B was given as primary therapy. Improvements of fungal lesions were shown by CT after two to four weeks of antifungal therapy. Complete radiologic remissions were achieved between 4 months and one year. The intensive chemotherapy schedule was continued in all of 4 cases. The median time from fungal infection to the continuation of chemotherapy was 35 days. None showed recurrence of fungal infection.

CONCLUSIONSThe halo sign on CT may be a reliable indicator for the early diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis. The preemptive antifungal therapy on the basis of the identification of a halo sign and the reversal of immunosuppression may improve the outcome of invasive aspergillosis. Prolonged antifungal treatment during subsequent cycles of chemotherapy permits completion of scheduled intensive chemotherapy without fungal recurrence.

Antifungal Agents ; therapeutic use ; Aspergillosis ; drug therapy ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; complications ; Male ; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma ; complications