High-dose cytarabine has been the frontline therapy for the consolidation treatment of acute myeloid leukemia for many years. Current guidelines suggest that the combination of anthracyclines with high-dose cytarabine can be considered an option for consolidation therapy in certain patients. However, the research in this area is limited. This study aimed to investigate whether consolidation therapy with high doses of cytarabine in combination with idarubicin could result in better long-term survival. A total of 102 patients who achieved complete response and underwent consolidated treatment more than twice were included in the analysis. In this study, 49 patients received high-dose cytarabine alone for consolidation chemotherapy (HDAC group), and 53 patients received idarubicin in combination with high-dose cytarabine for consolidation chemotherapy (IHDAC group). The use of idarubicin in combination with high-dose cytarabine in consolidation therapy did not lead to a better long-term prognosis in patients than high-dose cytarabine alone. Patients treated with idarubicin required a significantly longer time to recover from agranulocytosis during hospitalization and had a higher incidence of infections.
Qian et al. (Mon,) studied this question.