Decitabine combined with minimally myelosuppressive therapy for induction of remission in pediatric high-risk acute myeloid leukemia with chromosome 5q deletion: a report of three cases

Cases of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with complex karyotypes including chromosome 5 abnormalities are rare and have a very poor prognosis. Management of AML with monosomy 5/del(5q) has been inconsistent. We treated three adolescents with this AML subtype using combined low-dose cytarabine and mitoxantrone, concurrently with decitabine and G-CSF, for remission induction. Decitabine was also included in the conditioning regimen before hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). All three patients achieved complete remission after treatment with this combination therapy. The treatment was well tolerated, and the patients are alive and free of disease at 3.6, 3.2, and 3.0 years after HCT, respectively.

Automated summary

Cases of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with complex karyotypes including chromosome 5 abnormalities are rare and have a very poor prognosis. This study shows that combination therapy can effectively induce remission with good tolerability and improve survival rates in this subtype of AML patients.