Low-Dose Cytarabine Therapy in Hypoplastic Acute Leukemia

Abstract

To the Editor: Hypoplastic acute leukemia is a distinct nosologic entity that primarily affects older patients (median age, 68 years) and is characterized by pancytopenia and a hypocellular bone marrow with more than 30 per cent myeloblasts.¹ Remission-induction therapy with conventional cytotoxic-drug combinations is known to have a low success rate and a high mortality rate in patients with hypoplastic acute leukemia.^{1 , 2} This letter describes a patient with hypoplastic acute leukemia in whom complete remission was achieved with cytarabine given as a single agent at a low dose, 10 mg per square meter of body-surface area twice a day.An . . .