Abstract
Background. Children with chemotherapy refractory T‐cell lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma were given alpha‐interferon (α‐IFN) to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of this biologic response modifier. Methods. Twenty children with T‐cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T‐cell ALL) in marrow relapse and one patient with mediastinal recurrence of T‐cell non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma (T‐cell NHL) were enrolled. All patients had failed at least two previous multiagent drug trials. Recombinant α‐IFN was given at 30 million U/M2/dose intravenously or subcutaneously for 10 doses over 14 days, followed by 3 doses per week until disease progression occurred. Results.. One child had a complete response (<5% blasts) and three patients a partial response (5‐25% blasts) in their bone marrow. All patients eventually showed signs of progressive disease. Significant toxicities included cardiac hypofunction in two patients and profound lethargy in two patients. Conclusions. α‐IFN is tolerated in children with Tcell ALL and T‐cell NHL and has activity against chemotherapy resistant disease.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 197-202 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Cancer |
Volume | 74 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 1 1994 |
Keywords
- Tcell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
- alpha‐interferon
- childhood T‐cell lymphoblastic disease
- relapsed T‐cell lymphoblastic disease
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research