Interferon in the suppression of Philadelphia chromosome of chronic myeloid leukemia

Objective. To evaluate if human recombinant interferon alpha(IFN) combined whit chemoterapy is able to supress the Philadelphia chromosome clone in patients with crhonic myeloid leukemia (CML). Material and methods. The cytogenetic evolution in 53 patients with CML in chronic phase de novo was studied. They received one of three treatment schemes: a) induction of remission with daunorrubicin, vincristine, cytocine arabinose and prednisone (DOAP) and maintenance with IFN (n = 12); b) induction with busulfan (BUS) or hydroxiurea (HYDX) and maintenance with IFN (n = 26); c) induction with DOAP and mainteinance with BUS (n = 15). Results. The remission was seen two to six months after the start of treatment: 10 had complete remission, six a partial one, 14 a minor remission and 23 none. The 16 with complete or partial response received treatment with IFN. None of the 15 cases maintained with BUS had complete or partial response. The proportion of cases with complete response (3/12) was slightly lower in patients treated with intensive chemotherapy (BUS/HIDX/IFN) than in those receiving conventional treatment (7/26). Conclusions. Our results showed that: a) IFN in combination with chemotherapy induced partial or complete response in 30% of our cases; and b) intensive chemotherapy combined with IFN was not superior in terms of a cytogenetic response to treatment with monodrugs (BUS/HIDX) and IFN.