How all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) was discovered and its use in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL)

Following the Confucian thought that allows the transformation, the education of a bad element rather than its eradication, several authors, Israeli, Spanish and American have published encouraging results. We concluded negatively, using thioproline, after three years of testing, all this during the 1980s. Flynn, American researcher, used the cis form of retinoic acid with limited effects. In China, we were able to use all-transretinoic acid (ATRA) which was to prove much more effective in transforming promyelocytes into granulocytes either in the HL 60 cell line or in patient cells. It was in 1985 that, on compassionate grounds, we were able to cure a 5-year-old girl of her leukemia with ATRA. In 1987, and again in 1993, we were able to demonstrate the decisive action of ATRA, enhanced by the simultaneous use of arsenic trioxide (ATO), rather than chemotherapy. Promyelocytic leukemia, which was fatal within a few weeks before 1985, is more than 95% cured by 2023.(c) 2023 l'Academie nationale de medecine. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Following the Confucian thought of transformation over eradication, encouraging results have been published by authors from Israel, Spain, and America. After three years of testing during the 1980s, Thioproline showed negative results while American researcher Flynn used cis form of retinoic acid with limited effects. In China, the use of all-transretinoic acid (ATRA) proved to be much more effective in transforming promyelocytes into granulocytes, leading to a significant cure for promyelocytic leukemia, especially when combined with arsenic trioxide (ATO) instead of chemotherapy.