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  • Hairy cell leukemia: epidemiology, pharmacokinetics of cladribine, and long-term follow-up of subcutaneous therapy.

Hairy cell leukemia: epidemiology, pharmacokinetics of cladribine, and long-term follow-up of subcutaneous therapy.

Leukemia & lymphoma (2011-05-27)
Gunnar Juliusson, Henrik Samuelsson
ABSTRACT

Hairy cell leukemia is often reported as a disease of young males. The male predominance is strong, 4:1, but the median age in the Swedish national compulsory cancer registry is similar to that of follicular lymphoma, i.e. 62 years. The overall 6-year survival in the Swedish registry of patients diagnosed since 2000 is 80%, 93% of patients <60 years, and 68% of those >60 years. The yearly risk of secondary cancers is 1.75%. Cladribine is a prodrug which is selectively activated intracellularly. The intracellular initial half-life is 13 h and the terminal half-life is 30 h. Subcutaneous injection once daily is simple and effective due to 100% bioavailability and no local side effects from injection, and self-administration is easy. Long-term follow-up of Scandinavian patients treated with cladribine (mostly as subcutaneous injections) in the early 1990s shows a >80% 15-year survival from cladribine treatment in <60 years of age, but  <50% in older patients. Survival from diagnosis of these patients was similar for those previously treated and untreated.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Cladribine, European Pharmacopoeia (EP) Reference Standard
Cladribine for peak identification, European Pharmacopoeia (EP) Reference Standard
Sigma-Aldrich
2-Chloro-2′-deoxyadenosine, antileukemic