PLoS ONE (Jan 2013)

Deferasirox and vitamin D improves overall survival in elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia after demethylating agents failure.

  • Etienne Paubelle,
  • Florence Zylbersztejn,
  • Sawsaneh Alkhaeir,
  • Felipe Suarez,
  • Céline Callens,
  • Michaël Dussiot,
  • Françoise Isnard,
  • Marie-Thérèse Rubio,
  • Gandhi Damaj,
  • Norbert-Claude Gorin,
  • Jean-Pierre Marolleau,
  • Renato C Monteiro,
  • Ivan C Moura,
  • Olivier Hermine

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065998
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 6
p. e65998

Abstract

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The prognosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in elderly (≥65 years) patients is poor and treatment remains non-consensual especially for those who are not eligible for intensive therapies. Our group has shown that in vitro the iron chelator deferasirox (DFX) synergizes with vitamin D (VD) to promote monocyte differentiation in primary AML cells. Herein, we present results from a retrospective case-control study in which the association of DFX (1-2 g/d) and 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (100,000 IU/week) (DFX/VD) was proposed to patients following demethylating agents failure. Median survival of patients treated with DFX/VD combination (n = 17) was significantly increased in comparison with matched patients receiving best supportive care (BSC) alone (n = 13) (10.4 versus 4 months respectively). In addition, the only factor associated to an increased overall survival in DFX/VD-treated patients was serum VD levels. We conclude that DFX/VD treatment correlated with increased overall survival of AML patients in this retrospective cohort of elderly patients.