Chemotherapy dosages are often compromised, but most reports lack data on dosages that are actually delivered. In two consecutive
acute lymphoblastic leukemia trials that differed in their
asparaginase formulation, native E. coli L-
asparaginase in St. Jude Total 15 (T15, n=365) and
pegaspargase in Total 16 (T16, n=524), we tallied the dose intensities for all drugs on the low-risk or standard-risk arms, analyzing 504,039 dosing records. The median dose intensity for each
drug ranged from 61-100%. Dose intensities for several drugs were more than 10% higher on T15 than on T16:
cyclophosphamide (P<0.0001 for the standard- risk arm),
cytarabine (P<0.0001 for the standard-risk arm), and
mercaptopurine (P<0.0001 for the low-risk arm and P<0.0001 for the standardrisk arm). We attributed the lower dosages on T16 to the higher
asparaginase dosages on T16 than on T15 (P<0.0001 for both the low-risk and standard-risk arms), with higher dose-intensity for
mercaptopurine in those with anti-
asparaginase antibodies than in those without (P=5.62x10-3 for T15 standard risk and P=1.43x10-4 for T16 standard risk). Neutrophil count did not differ between protocols for low-risk patients (P=0.18) and was actually lower for standard-risk patients on T16 than on T15 (P<0.0001) despite lower dosages of most drugs on T16. Patients with low
asparaginase dose intensity had higher
methotrexate dose intensity with no impact on prognosis. The only dose intensity measure predicting a higher risk of relapse on both studies was higher
mercaptopurine dose intensity, but this did not reach statistical significance (P=0.03 T15; P=0.07 T16). In these intensive multiagent trials, higher dosages of
asparaginase compromised the dosing of other drugs for
acute lymphoblastic leukemia, particularly
mercaptopurine, but lower
chemotherapy dose intensity was not associated with relapse.