Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia Asian Consortium study of arsenic trioxide in newly diagnosed patients: impact and outcome
Harinder Gill, Radha Raghupathy, Hsin‐An Hou, Xavier Cheng-Hong Tsai, Adisak Tantiworawit, Melissa Ooi, Gin Gin Gan, CL Wong, Rita Yim, Lynn Chin, Paul Lee, Vivian Li, Lester Au, Qi Zhang, Garret M. K. Leung, Tony K.Y. Wu, Carmen Y.Y. Lee, Wee Joo Chng, Hwei‐Fang Tien, Cyrus R. Kumana, Yok‐Lam Kwong
Abstract
ABSTRACT: The Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL) Asian Consortium analyzed a contemporaneous cohort of newly diagnosed patients with APL treated with and without frontline arsenic trioxide (ATO) in 6 centers. The objectives were to define the impact of ATO on early deaths and relapses and its optimal positioning in the overall treatment strategy. In a 21.5-year period, 324 males and 323 females at a median age of 45.5 years (range, 18.1-91.8; low/intermediate risk, n = 448; high risk, n = 199) were treated. Regimens included frontline all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA)/chemotherapy and maintenance with/without ATO (n = 436), ATRA/IV-ATO/chemotherapy (ATRA/IV-ATO; n = 61), and ATRA/oral-ATO/ascorbic acid with ATO maintenance (oral-AAA; n = 150). The ATRA/chemotherapy group had significantly more frequent early deaths within 60 days (8.3% vs 3.3%; P = .05), inferior 60-day survival (91.7% vs 98.4%/96%; P < .001), inferior 5-year relapse-free survival (RFS; 76.9% vs 92.8%/97.8%; P < .001), and inferior 5-year overall survival (OS; 84.6% vs 91.4%/92.3%; P = .03) than ATO-containing groups (ATRA/IV-ATO and oral-AAA). The addition of oral-ATO maintenance partly mitigated the inferior 5-year RFS resulting from the omission of ATO during induction (ATRA/chemotherapy/non-ATO maintenance vs ATRA/chemotherapy/ATO maintenance vs ATRA/IV-ATO vs oral-AAA, 71.1% vs 87.9% vs 92.8% vs 97.8%; P < .001). The favorable survival impacts of ATO were observed in all risk groups. In conclusion, ATO decreased early deaths, improved 60-day survival, and resulted in significantly superior RFS and OS. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT04251754.