Treatment of Acute Leukemia With Cortisone and Corticotropin

ALTHOUGH the usefulness of the hormones corticotropin and cortisone in the treatment of acute leukemia has become quite clear, little consideration has been given to the possible reasons for the effectiveness of these agents in some cases and their failure in others. We have become impressed that in certain cases the course of the illness has even seemed to become accelerated in association with such hormone therapy. A review of our own experience was therefore initiated and the present report represents the results of that study. REVIEW OF LITERATURE A review of the literature reveals that others have made somewhat similar observations, although a critical analysis of experience in a single clinic has not been published. In Table 1 a summary is given of the recorded data. Unfortunately, a number of investigators have not attempted to differentiate the various types of acute leukemia. Others have done so, but criteria for