Daunorubicin-induced cell kill with 1-hour versus 24-hour infusions: a randomized comparison in children with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Background: Daunorubicin (DNR) is one of the most important drugs in treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Prolonged infusions of anthracyclines are less cardiotoxic but it has not been investigated whether the in vivo leukemic cell kill is equivalent to short-term infusions.

Procedure: In the cooperative treatment study COALL-92 for childhood ALL 178 patients were randomized to receive in a therapeutic window a single dose of 36 mg/m (2) DNR either as a 1-h (85 patients) or 24-h infusion (93 patients).

Patient stratification based on prednisolone-vincristine-asparaginase resistance profiles in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Purpose: To confirm the prognostic value of a drug resistance profile combining prednisolone, vincristine, and l-asparaginase (PVA) cytotoxicity in an independent group of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated with a different protocol and analyzed at longer follow-up compared with our previous study of patients treated according to the Dutch Childhood Leukemia Study Group (DCLSG) ALL VII/VIII protocol.

Patients And Methods: Drug resistance profiles were determined in 202 children (aged 1 to 18 years) with newly diagnosed ALL who were treated according to the German Cooperative Study Group for Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (COALL)-92 protocol.

Results: At a median follow-up of 6.

Thioguanine offers no advantage over mercaptopurine in maintenance treatment of childhood ALL: results of the randomized trial COALL-92.

The German cooperative study group for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (COALL-92) was designed to examine the clinical effectiveness of thioguanine (TG) versus mercaptopurine (MP) in maintenance treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in a randomized multicenter trial. TG and MP are prodrugs and have to be converted intracellularly to 6-thioguanine nucleotides (TGNs) for cytostatic activity. TG is converted into TGN in fewer steps and has been shown to be more cytotoxic in equimolar doses in vitro compared with 6-MP.

[Improved treatment results in children with AML: Results of study AML-BFM 93].

Background: In the multicenter trial AML-BFM 93 daunorubicin or idarubicin was randomly applied in all patients during induction in combination with cytarabine and etoposide. After induction all patients were stratified to the standard or high risk group. To improve outcome in high risk patients high dose cytarabine and mitoxantrone (HAM) was introduced.

Multimodal treatment of malignant sacrococcygeal germ cell tumors: a prospective analysis of 66 patients of the German cooperative protocols MAKEI 83/86 and 89.

Purpose: To evaluate a multimodal approach including surgery and cisplatinum chemotherapy for treatment of children with malignant sacrococcygeal germ cell tumors (GCT) and to compare adjuvant and neoadjuvant strategies in advanced tumors.

Patients And Methods: Between 1983 and 1995, 71 patients with malignant sacrococcygeal GCT were prospectively enrolled onto the German protocols for nontesticular GCT Maligne Keimzelltumoren 83/86 and 89. Five patients who received no chemotherapy (n = 2) or nonplatinum chemotherapy (n = 2) or who did not undergo tumor resection (n = 1) were excluded from this analysis.