Hospitals treat rare leukemia with arsenic

Patients being treated for a rare form of leukemia by doctors at North Shore University Hospital (NSUH) and Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Medical Center have helped confirm that an arsenic compound, coupled with standard chemotherapy treatments, significantly increases long-term survival.
Through their participation in a national study, 28 patients from NSUH and LIJ diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia, or APL, formed the second largest group in the six-year, 582-participant National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute (NCI) study.
In acute leukemia, the bone marrow does not mature properly, and eventually crowds out normal cells. APL, a subtype of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), affects about 1,500 patients each year, about 10 percent of AML cases. It primarily strikes middle-aged adults.
Jonathan Kolitz, MD, director of the leukemia service at NSUH’s Don Monti Division of Medical Oncology at the Monter Cancer Center in Lake Success, said the trial shows that APL is essentially curable in many patients, a term he doesn’t use lightly. “I believe arsenic trioxide will become part of the new standard protocol for treatment of APL in many patients,” he said.
After being diagnosed with APL in 2000, Oyster Bay resident Vicki Murphy, 59, became the first patient to enroll in the study at NSUH. After going through several rounds of chemotherapy to put her leukemia into remission, she said she went back to the hospital daily for nearly three months to receive the additional arsenic trioxide therapy. “I was scared but I also knew this trial was my chance for a cure,” she explained. “It’s always scary when you’re facing the unknown.”
The study revealed that patients receiving the arsenic trioxide had significantly better likelihood of remaining disease-free and surviving than those receiving standard chemotherapy alone.
“These patients endured additional months of therapy, with 25 days of two-hour infusions of arsenic given over five weeks,” Kolitz said. “Then, after a short break, they had to do it all over again.” Study patients also underwent extensive follow-up, including weekly blood tests and regular bone marrow tests. They will be monitored for life.