The Treatment of Acute Myeloblastic Leukaemia

In a recent symposium held in Paris, Holland (1970) divided the treatment of acute leukaemia into three historical phases: (i) Before 1947, the era of despair with no effective treatment. (ii) From 1947 to 1963, the advent of chemotherapy, and with the failure to find a curative drug, the era of palliation. (iii) Since 1963, the appearance of new drugs, their use in intensive regimes and in combinations, and the beginning of immunotherapy, have all made palliation too mean a goal.