FLAG Regimen with or without Idarubicin in Children with Relapsed/Refractory Acute Leukemia: Experience from a Turkish Pediatric Hematology Center

FLAG/FLAG-IDA regimen for children with relapsed/refractory acute leukemia in the era of targeted novel therapies

BACKGROUND

Outcomes of relapsed/refractory childhood acute leukemia remain poor. We analyzed the safety/efficacy of fludarabine, cytarabine, and granulocyte colony stimulating factor, with/without idarubicin (FLAG ± IDA) as salvage therapy compared with recent published results of novel therapies.

METHODS

This retrospective study included children aged 1 to 15 years with relapsed/refractory acute leukemia who received FLAG ± IDA salvage therapy from January 2000 to December 2014. Patients with infant leukemia, mixed lineage leukemia, Philadelphia-positive acute leukemia, or secondary leukemia were excluded.

RESULT

Fifty patients were identified: 25 with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and 25 with acute myeloid leukemia. The median age at initiation of FLAG ± IDA was seven years. Site of relapse was the bone marrow in 29, isolated central nervous system in 11, and combined in 10 patients. FLAG ± IDA was used after first relapse in 68% and after multiple relapses in 32%. Complete remission was achieved in 34 (68%) patients. No variables predictive of complete remission were identified. Grade 3 or greater toxicity was observed in 96% and 6% died from toxicity. Toxicities included hematologic toxicity (96%), infection (52%), and enterocolitis (28%). Twenty-four of 50 (48%) patients achieved a sustained complete remission and survived to bone marrow transplantation. The five-year overall survival was 23.9% ± 6.9%. Patients achieving second complete remission and patients proceeding to bone marrow transplantation following second complete remission demonstrated significantly improved overall survival (p = 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Despite a 68% complete remission rate using FLAG ± IDA, only 48% of patients survived to bone marrow transplantation. The regimen was associated with 96% toxicity and only one in four patients was alive at five years. This underscores the need to find more effective lower toxicity salvage regimens.

Tumorablative conditioning regimen for haploidentical stem cell transplantation in 102 children with hematologic malignancies: a single-center experience

Haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (Haplo-HSCT) is widely carried out in China, and transplantation related complications decreased gradually with the transplant technology improving, and the overall survival(OS) increased year by year. However, relapse after transplantation is still one of the main causes of death in patients with hematological malignancy. In order to reduce the recurrence after HSCT, we set a tumorablative conditioning regimen (TAC ) regimen; the aim is as much as possible to eliminate the malignant clone to reduce the recurrence without increasing the conditioning toxicity. We retrospectively analyzed 102 cases of haplo-HSCT in our hospital from 2012 to 2017. Ninety-eight out of the 99 (99.0%) patients achieved primary engraftment. The 2-year OS and disease free survival (DFS) are 81.4% (83/102) and 77.45% (79/102). The cumulative incidence of leukemia relapse is 16.2% (16/99), Twenty-nine patients developed II-IV acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) (29%) within 100 days and only nine patients have grade III-IV aGVHD (9%) in measurable 99 patients. The conditioning regimen was relatively well tolerated with limited regimen-related toxicity. The preliminary results show that TAC is safe and effective in haplo-HSCT of children with hematologic malignancies. This study will provide a clinical basis for the individualized conditioning regimen.