A pilot study of carboplatin augmentation therapy for patients with poor risk acute non-lymphocytic leukemia

Eleven patients with acute non-lymphocytic leukemia and persistent leukemia on a bone marrow done 6 days after the start of standard induction chemotherapy with daunorubicin and cytosine arabinoside were given augmentation chemotherapy with carboplatin as a continuous intravenous infusion over 3 days. Nine of the 11 patients (82%) entered complete remission. The hematologic and non-hematologic toxicities encountered by these patients were similar to those seen after conventional therapy alone with the exception of peripheral neuropathy in one patient. Of the two induction failures, one patient died of treatment-related toxicity and one patient had resistant leukemia.