Amifostine Treatment of a Patient with Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia

The prognosis for the majority of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients without a donor is dismal whether conventional salvage chemotherapy regimens or investigational strategies are used, and most of these patients will eventually die of their disease. There is no standard chemotherapy regimen that provides durable complete remission in patients with refractory AML. Beneficial effects of amifostine, either alone or in combination with conventional chemotherapy, was demonstrated in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome and poor prognosis AML. Here we report our second experience with AML patients who were successfully treated with an amifostine containing noncytotoxic drug combination. The beneficial effects of amifostine are not limited to cytoprotectivity which enables dose-escalation for many chemotherapeutic agents, at least in some refractory AML it can also be used as a bridge to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.