- Arm I: Patients receive cytarabine (ARA-C) IV continuously on days 1 and 2 and then IV over 30 minutes every 12 hours on days 3-8, mitoxantrone IV on days 3-5, etoposide (VP-16) IV over 1 hour on days 6-8, and ARA-C intrathecally (IT) on days 1 and 8.