Two dose adjustment programs in high-dose methotrexate treatment for
pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Abstract
Background: Methotrexate is safely administered to most patients but can
also cause severe toxicities. It is necessary to individualize
methotrexate dose to maintain suf-ficient exposure while minimizing
toxicities. Procedure: We enrolled 1174 cycles of high-dose methotrexate
chemotherapy from 294 patients treated following the CCCG-ALL-2015
protocol and explored risk fac-tors of toxicities, methotrexate
clearance delay and relapse. We compared those who received a fixed-dose
reduction (Program 1) with those who were dose-adjusted by added
methotrexate concentration test at 16h (Program 2) after methotrexate
clear-ance delay existed the last cycle. Results: Female, IR/HR group,
BSA<0.69m2 and C44h≥1.0 μ mol/L were risk factors of
toxicities(P<0.05). Significant covariates on methotrexate
clearance delay were age >6years, male and IR/HR group
(P<0.01). Male, IR/HR and C68h≥0.2μmol/L group patients were
at higher risk of relapse(P<0.05). No significant association
was observed between methotrexate dose and relapse-free survival. 405
cycles from 168 patients were dose-adjusted by Program 1 and 118 cycles
from 43 patients by Pro-gram 2. Patients who used Program 2 had a higher
actual methotrexate infusion dose and infusion rate and was better in
keeping C44h in our target value (P<0.001). Ab-normal serum
potassium was more frequently in patients using Program2
(P<0.001), and prolonged myelosuppression was more commonly
seen in IR/HR patients with Program2(P=0.003). Conclusions: No
significant correlation between methotrexate dose or C44h and
re-lapse-free survival time was found. Patients who were dose-adjusted
by Program 2 received a higher therapeutic dose and better controlled
the methotrexate concentra-tion to our target range.