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The purpose of this study by Children's Cancer Study Group A was to explore the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy in the remission maintenance of childhood leukemia. Sixty-four children with leukemia underwent complete remission with varying doses of prednisone, vincristine, or a combination of 6-mercaptopurine and methotrexate. They were then treated with 8-week alternating courses of oral 6-mercaptopurine and methotrexate. Midway in each course of 6-mercaptopurine, intravenous actinomycin-D was given. Similarly, intravenous nitrogen mustard was given during each course of methotrexate. The combination therapy was well-tolerated. Significantly longer remissions were found in those patients induced with prednisone who received the combination chemotherapy (median = 720 days) when compared with 71 simultaneously treated controls (median = 406 days).
Leikin et al. (Mon,) studied this question.