Summary.-Thirty-two adults with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) were randomized to receive, from the time of diagnosis, either chemotherapy alone (C group) or chemotherapy plus Bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine (BCG) (C + I group). After remission induction and consolidation, chemotherapy was stopped in both groups but BCG was continued in the C + I group.The overall survival of the C + I group was significantly increased (P < 0-05). There was no significant increase in the duration of first remission in the C + I group (0 05
0.1) but reduction in survival after CNS relapse was highly significant (P=0 001). These results suggest that administration of BCG from an early stage in the treatment of AML may protect the CNS against leukaemic infiltration and therefore serve as a simple, innocuous form of CNS prophylaxis.
Two cases of Philadelphia chromosome (Ph1) positive acute lymphoblastic leukaemia are reported, both of which lost the Philadelphia chromosome during remission. In one patient remission of the acute lymphoblastic leukaemia continued but classical Ph1 positive chronic granulocytic leukaemia developed. In the other patient relapse of the acute lymphoblastic leukaemia occurred associated with the return of the Ph1 chromosome. The evidence suggests that the chromosome aberration occurred in a pluripotential stem cell, which in one case proliferated along both a lymphoid cell line and a myeloid cell line. Both cases responded well to conventional therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.