Chemotherapy is the standard of care for many types of leukemia. Even if patients do not achieve a cure, chemotherapy still helps patients survive longer and feel better.
Leukemia chemotherapy is often given in combination regimens because different drugs can attack leukemia cells from different pathways. Combinations also help avoid leukemia cells becoming resistant to any of the individual drugs.
In addition to chemotherapy drugs, other drugs can be used to assist the chemotherapy drugs to work better and to prevent infection or bleeding. Such drugs include erythropoietin and hematopoietic stimulating factors.
Some types of acute leukemia can spread to the brain and spinal cord. Conventional chemotherapy cannot reach those areas because of the body’s special barrier protection mechanisms. An alternative method of chemotherapy delivery is needed, intrathecal chemotherapy, which injects drugs directly into the spinal canal to attack the leukemic cells located there, or drugs that can enter the central nervous system.
Commonly used therapeutic agents for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)
- Chemotherapeutic agents.
- menthylase (asparaginase)
- Bonatumumab (blinatumomab)
- Clofarabine (clofarabine)
- Zolubicin (daunorubicin)
- Doxorubicin
- Doxorubicin
- Methotrexate
- Nelarabine
- Vincristine (vincristine )
- cyclophosphamide or isocyclophosphamide (cyclophosphamide/ifosfamide)
- Glucocorticoids (glucocorticoid)
- Dexamethasone (dexamethasone)
- prednisone (prednison)
Commonly used drugs for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
- Chemotherapeutic agents.
- cytosine arabinoside
- Rubicin (daunorubicin)
- Idarubicin
- mitoxantrone
Commonly used drugs for the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)
- Chemotherapeutic agents.
- Rosmin (daunorubicin)
- Idarubicin
- Other drugs.
- Arsenic trioxide (arsenic trioxide)
- All-trans-retinoic acid (all-trans-retinoicacid, ATRA)
Commonly used therapeutic agents for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)
- Chemotherapeutic agents.
- bendamustine (bendamustine)
- Bendamustine (chlorambucil)
- cyclophosphamide (cyclophosphamide)
- Fludarabine (fludarabine)
- Vincristine (vincristine )
- Irutinib (ibrutinib)
- Glucocorticoids.
- Prednisone (prednison)
- Monoclonal antibodies.
- Alemtuzumab (alemtuzumab)
- Rituximab
Commonly used drugs for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)
- Tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
- Dasatinib (dasatinib)
- Imatinib (imatinib )
- Nilotinib (nilotinib)
- If patients with CML cannot be treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors and cannot receive stem cell transplantation, they may be treated with busulfan, hydroxyurea, or interferon (±algocytosine).
Drugs used to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) can be administered orally or intravenously over a limited course of therapy. If relapse occurs, the drug may be given again for treatment.
Nausea and vomiting are common side effects of chemotherapy, but they usually end at the end of treatment. During leukemia treatment, your doctor may also prescribe anti-nausea and vomiting medications to help prevent or reduce your symptoms.