One hundred and ninety two adults (median age 44 years) with de novo or secondary (n = 17) acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) were managed with a maximum of six intended courses with adriamycin 25 mg/m2/d for three days, plus cytarabine 200 mg/m2/d and 6-thioguanine 200 mg/m2/d for seven days (short-term therapy, STT). Twenty eight patients not in remission after the first course were given cytarabine 2 g/m2/bd for six days, a treatment that was highly toxic and gave a low CR rate. One hundred and twenty-six patients overall (66 per cent) achieved a complete remission (CR), 117/164 (71 per cent) after one to three standard courses (median 1), and 9/28 (32 per cent) after high-dose cytarabine. Median CR duration was 12 months. By multivariate analysis, younger age, blast count less than or equal to 50 x 10(9)/L, and de novo AML were associated with a better outcome (p less than 0.05). CR duration correlated favourably with FAB M3 morphology and total number (five or six) of cycles (p less than 0.05). In patients receiving five or six total courses, median CR length resulted 15.5 months and leukemia-free survival at 3 years 37 per cent. Therapy was curtailed in one fourth of CR patients because of unacceptable toxicity, and there were nine early deaths attributable to therapy-related complications among 126 CR cases. STT may be a worthwhile form of treatment for patients with de novo non-hyperleukocytic AML that are able to tolerate five or six consecutive induction-like chemotherapy courses.