l-asparaginase as an efficient salvage therapy for refractory acute myeloid leukemia with chromosome 7 abnormalities: a case series

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with chromosome 7 abnormalities has a dismal prognosis due to a poor complete remission (CR) rate after induction chemotherapy. Although various salvage therapies for refractory AML have been developed for adults, few salvage therapies are available for children. Here, we report the cases of three patients with refractory AML with chromosome 7 abnormalities (Patient 1, with inv(3)(q21;3q26.2) and monosomy 7; Patient 2, with der(7)t(1;7)(?;q22); patient 3, with monosomy 7) who were successfully treated with l-asparaginase (L-ASP) as salvage therapy. All three patients achieved CR several weeks after L-ASP treatment, and two patients successfully underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Patient 2 relapsed after the second HSCT in the form of an intracranial lesion, but achieved and sustained CR for 3 years with weekly L-ASP maintenance therapy. Immunohistochemical staining for asparagine synthetase (ASNS), whose gene is located at 7q21.3, was performed for each patient. The result was negative in all patients, which suggests that haploid 7q21.3 and other chromosome 7 abnormalities leading to haploinsufficiency of ASNS contribute to a high susceptibility to L-ASP. In conclusion, L-ASP is a promising salvage therapy for refractory AML with chromosome 7 abnormalities, which are associated with ASNS haploinsufficiency.