Factors related to length of complete remission in adult acute leukemia

Two hundred and two adult patients with acute leukemia were analyzed to determine pretreatment and treatment factors that could predict for duration of bone marrow remission. Several factors had a significant effect on remission duration, including morphologic diagnosis (AML greater than ALL greater than AUL), initial blast cell count, age, serum LDH, fibrinogen level, labeling index, and in vitro agar colony growth. Patients who attained a remission quickly or in whom leukemic cells in blood and bone marrow were rapidly cleared had long remissions. After applying regression model fitting methods, the six major factors, in order of significance, were the initial serum LDH level, pretreatment fibrinogen level, the number of courses of treatment to obtain a remission, morphologic diagnosis, the halving rate of leukemic cells in the blood, and the age of the patient. The model derived from this study was applied to the 202 patients and suggested that patients likely to have short or long bone marrow remission can be identified.