Journal of Hematology & Oncology

official impact factor 2.93

Open Access Short report

Temozolomide and cisplatin in relapsed/refractory acute leukemia

Karen Seiter*, Sreedhar Katragadda, Doris Ponce, Muhammad Rasul and Nasir Ahmed

Author Affiliations

Department of Medicine, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York 10595, USA

For all author emails, please log on.

Journal of Hematology & Oncology 2009, 2:21 doi:10.1186/1756-8722-2-21

Published: 22 May 2009

Abstract

Cisplatin depletes MGMT and increases the sensitivity of leukemia cells to temozolomide. We performed a phase I study of cisplatin and temozolomide in patients with relapsed and refractory acute leukemia. Fifteen patients had AML, 3 had ALL, and 2 had biphenotypic leukemia. The median number of prior chemotherapy regimens was 3 (1–5). Treatment was well tolerated up to the maximal doses of temozolomide 200 mg/m2/d times 7 days and cisplatin 100 mg/m2 on day 1. There was one complete remission in this heavily pretreated patient population. Five of 20 (25%) patients demonstrated a significant reduction in bone marrow blasts.