Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate 1) the incidence of hepatitis and its influence on the clinical management of and outcome in acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia (ANLL) patients in first complete remission and 2) the impact of routine hepatitis C virus screening on the incidence of hepatitis in these patients.
Study design and methods: Clinical and blood bank charts were reviewed for 65 consecutive ANLL patients between 1985 and 1993 who achieved complete remission after a course of daunomycin and cytarabine (cytarabine: 200 mg/m2/day x 7 days in continuous infusion; daunomycin: 60 mg/m2/day for the first 3 days of the 7, as a bolus).
Results: Only 43 percent of patients who developed hepatitis completed the scheduled therapy. Hepatitis did not decrease the probability of relapse (66 +/- 9% vs. 66 +/- 11%), but patients with changes in planned treatment, due to hepatitis or other causes, tended to have a higher relapse rate than patients without changes in consolidation therapy (56.5% vs. 40.4%; p = 0.10). This did not result in a decrease in disease-free survival, however, because of the higher number of treatment-related deaths in the patients without hepatitis (who completed the therapy). Over the period from 1985 through 1989, the 6-month actuarial probability of developing hepatitis was 42 percent. However, since 1989, when hepatitis C screening of blood donors was implemented, the incidence was reduced to 12.5 percent (p < 0.05), in spite of greater transfusion support (172 +/- 46 vs. 89 +/- 53, p < 0.01). No new cases of hepatitis were observed after the introduction of second-generation hepatitis C virus assays.
Conclusion: Hepatitis precludes the use of consolidation therapy in about half of ANLL patients, resulting, in the experience described here, in a trend toward a higher rate of relapse. Hepatitis C virus screening of blood components reduces the incidence of hepatitis in ANLL patients.