Cholorambucil versus Cholorambucil Plus Prednisolone as First-Line Therapy of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia in West of Iran

BACKGROUND: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has been the most common type of leukemia in adults worldwide, and then more common in the elderly, markedly more common in patients over the age of 65 years. METHODS: Seventy patients with CLL have referred to Clinic of Hematology-Oncology, Kermanshah, Iran, between Jan 2000 and Jun 2014. We have analyzed age, sex, survival, kind of chemotherapy and type of response in all of the patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Survival curves of complete response patients have compared with partial response, by log-rank test using the Prism 5 GraphPad Software for the five-year period with two years follow up. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 61.57±8.88 years that 55.7% were males. Between the 70 patients, 40 patients (57.1%) have started treatment with chlorambucil and 30 patients (42.9%) with chlorambucil plus prednisolone. Among the forty patients that have treated with chlorambucil, overall response rate was 95% that 9 patients (22.5%) had complete response. Among the 30 patients that have treated with chlorambucil plus prednisolone, overall response rate was 96%, that 9 patients (30%) had complete response after six months of treatment. The mean of five-year overall survival for treated patients with chlorambucil and chlorambucil plus prednisolone in the first-line of therapy was 38.5 and 40.5 months, respectively. CONCLUSION: Combination of prednisolon to chlorambucil has increased survival rate in the patients more than mono-therapy with chlorambucil and also the complete response rate to chlorambucil in West of Iran was better than other areas of world.