Vincristine and dexamethasone pulses in addition to maintenance therapy among pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (GD‐ALL‐2008): An open‐label, multicentre, randomized, phase III clinical trial

The efficacy and safety on the addition of vincristine (VCR) and dexamethasone (DEX) pulses to maintenance therapy among childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) remain uncertain. Herein, we perform an open‐label, multicentre, randomized, phase III clinical trial that was conducted at nine major medical centers in Guangdong Province, China. Patients were randomly assigned either the conventional maintenance therapy (control group, n = 384) or the VCR/DEX pulse (treatment group, n = 375). When limited to the SR cohort, 10‐year EFS was 82.6% (95% CI: 75.9–89.9) in the control group and 80.7% (95% CI: 74–88.1) in the treatment group (pnon‐inferiority = .0002). Similarly, patients with IR also demonstrated non‐inferiority of the treatment group to the control group in terms of 10‐year EFS (73.6% [95% CI: 67.6–80] vs. 77.6% [95% CI: 71.8–83.9]; pnon‐inferiority = .005). Among the HR cohort, compared with the control group, patients in the treatment group experienced a significant benefit in terms of 10‐year EFS (61.1% [95% CI: 47.7–78.2] vs. 72.6% [95% CI: 55.6–94.7], p = .026) and a trend toward higher 10‐year OS (73.8% [95% CI: 61.6–88.4] vs. 87.9% [95% CI: 579.2–97.5], p = .068). In the HR cohort, the total rate of drug‐induced liver injury and Grade 3 chemotherapy‐induced anemia were both lower for patients in the treatment group than in the control group (55.6% vs. 100%, p = .033; 37.5% vs. 60%, p = .036). Conversely, the total prevalence of chemotherapy‐induced thrombocytopenia was higher for patients in the treatment group than in the control group (88.9% vs. 40%, p = .027). Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia with high risk is suitable to VCR/DEX pulse during maintenance phase for the excellent outcome, while the standard‐to‐intermediate‐risk patients could eliminate the pulses.