Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) boasts overall survival (OS) of> 90% at 3 years and
early mortality of< 5% in recent clinical trials. Using a large National Cancer Database, we
performed analysis of 7190 adults with APL to determine whether one-month mortality and
OS of patients with APL treated in real-world practices mirror outcomes noted in clinical
trials. Only 64% of total patients received multi-agent therapy; 32% received either single-
agent therapy or no therapy at all. One-month mortality was 6% for patients≤ 18 years, 6 …

Introduction Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), considered a medical emergency,
requires prompt treatment at the first suspicion of the diagnosis. Treatment is initiated even
before cytogenetic or molecular confirmation of diagnosis because of high early mortality
with APL, mostly due to hemorrhage and disseminated intravascular coagulation. Once a
cancer with dismal prognosis, APL is now considered a highly curable cancer with the
introduction of all-trans retinoic acid and arsenic trioxide. In fact, recent clinical trials in APL …