Blood
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Arsenic trioxide and all-trans retinoic acid have become the frontline treatments for patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Despite the long wait for an oral arsenic drug, a commercially available agent, realgar-indigo naturalis formula (RIF), was not launched in China until 2009. ⋯ The promising results promote incorporating an outpatient postremission therapy model into clinical practice for both low-risk and high-risk APL patients in China. In this review, we discuss the evolution of oral arsenic RIF in the treatment of APL, with a special focus on how to address the related complications during induction therapy.