Treatment of acute
leukemia with intensive
chemotherapy leads to an increased risk of myelosuppression.
Luteinizing hormone (LH) blockade improves hematopoietic recovery in mice after radiation or
chemotherapy, through protection of the hematopoietic stem cells which express the
LH receptor. We hypothesized that LH blockade improves hematopoietic recovery following intensive
chemotherapy in patients with
leukemia. We conducted a retrospective analysis on pre-menopausal women with
acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or
acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who received intensive
chemotherapy and
leuprolide given for abnormal
uterine bleeding prevention or treatment. Given that
leuprolide was more commonly administered in younger patients, we performed propensity score matching between the
leuprolide (AML N=64; ALL N=49) and control groups (AML N=128; ALL N=98 patients). Patients with AML who received
leuprolide had an additional increase of 13.8 x 109/L/year in their platelet count, and a 0.19 x 109/L/year increase in their lymphocyte count after
chemotherapy compared to control (P=0.02; P=0.03 respectively). Those with ALL who received
leuprolide had an additional increase of 0.37 x 109/L/year in their absolute neutrophil count (P=0.02). In AML,
leuprolide was associated with higher long-term
hemoglobin levels (P.