Acute Leukaemia Treated with A-Methopterin

The Management of Acute Leukaemia in Adults

“…The corti- apparent synergistic effect and less toxicity than with either drug alone. Magnin (I953), Kclty and Beard (1953) and Dameshek (1954) agree as to the advantages of this combined thcrapy, but the cases reported have chiefly been children. Since aminopterin alone isso rarely of value in adults it seemed unlikely that the combination would be very profitable.…”

Antibodies as stratagems against cancer

“…The first study on targeted therapy was conducted when an antibody targeting leukemia cells 77 was linked to methotrexate, also known as amethopterin, which had been proposed as a useful chemotherapy agent. 78,79 In particular, DHFR, an enzyme which is responsible for the conversion of folic acid into tetrahydrofolic acid, is inhibited by methotrexate, although folic acid is required for the biosynthesis of purines and pyrimidines. The activation of DHFR thus inhibits the synthesis of DNA, RNA, thymidylates and proteins 80 resulting in the termination of cell division.…”

The Treatment of Acute Leukaemia

“…Children are more responsive to treatment than are adults, and the subacute lymphoblastic leukaemias with an aleukaemic blood picture react better than do myeloblastic or leukaemic types. 6,7,9 The chief disadvantage of folic acid antagonists are their unpredictability of action, their extreme toxicity and the development of resistance to them. The amount of the drugs required varies from case to case within a wide range and serious toxic manifestations may necessitate their withdrawal before the bone marrow has been influenced.…”