The target range for blood glucose levels is higher than is desired in the intensive regimen.
The improvements in response rates from more intensive regimens have maximized the clearance of minimal residual disease.
Clinical trials are addressing the role of more intensive regimens for patients with advanced-stage disease and poor prognostic factors.
In the intensive regimen, patients are required to take many additional expensive drugs over a longer period of time.
Pulses of vincristine and corticosteroid are often added to the standard maintenance backbone, although the benefit of these pulses within the context of intensive, multiagent regimens remains controversial.
There also exists a more intensive regimen with cycles of 14 days.
A conference in Boston this year estimated the intensive regimen raises diabetes treatment costs from $1,000-$1,500 a year to about $4,500.
Despite his intensive regimen, a full recovery seemed unlikely until recent months.
In the study, 20 patients followed an intensive regimen devised by Dr. Dean Ornish, director of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, Calif.
According to Taylor, he left the world of drugs through an intensive regimen of - golf.