ABSTRACT
Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of azacytidine (AZA) combined with homoharringtonine (HHT) and low-dose cytarabine (LDAC) in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with 3+ 7 conventional regimen intolerance.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical characteristics, efficacy, prognosis, and adverse events of 33 AML patients (15 initially diagnosed and 18 relapsed/refractory) admitted to the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University.Results:Among the 33 AML patients treated with this regimen, the median age was 55 years old, 9 patients had a moderate cytogenetic risk, and 18 patients had a high cytogenetic risk. Among the 33 patients, 3 were lost to follow-up and 1 had incomplete data. Among the remaining 29 patients who received AZA+ HHT+ LDAC treatment, the total complete response (CR) rate was 69.0%(20/29), and the total response rate (ORR) was 79.3%(23/29); The median progression free survival (PFS) was 7.0 months. Among the subgroup analysis, including age, gender, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score, disease classification, bone marrow progenitor cells, peripheral blood leukocytes, risk stratification, and epigenetic abnormalities, only CR rates and PFS differences were statistically significant among different ECOG scoring groups ( P=0.048; P=0.021). A total of 29 patients underwent 69 AZA+ HHT+ LDAC chemotherapy cycles. Retrospective grading was performed on 69 cycles based on common toxicity criteria for adverse events (CTC AE version 5.0). The most common grade Ⅲ-Ⅳ hematological adverse events were thrombocytopenia (54/69, 78.3%) and granulocytopenia (48/69, 69.6%). Common non hematological adverse events included nausea (19/69, 27.5%), infection (17/69, 24.6%), and hypokalemia (18/69, 26.1%). Conclusions:AZA combined with HHT and LDAC has a good therapeutic effect in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia, and adverse reaction events are controllable.