Clinical features of acute lymphoblastic leukemia subclasses in 28 Thai children--a preliminary study.

ABSTRACT

Twenty-eight Thai children with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia were evaluated for pretreatment characteristic, including immunophenotype of lymphoblast, outcome of treatment, and the correlation among them. By APAAP technique using a panel of eight monoclonal antibodies (HLA-DR, CD 19, CALLA (CD 10), IgM, CD 7, CD 3, CD 4, and CD 8), five subclasses were identified 67.9, 17.9, 7.1, 3.6, and 3.6 per cent were respectively shown to be common-, null-, mature thymocyte T-, pre B-, and B-ALLs. Clinical features in each subclass conformed to previous reports. All of the 27 evaluable patients attained initial complete remission, but subsequent relapses were noted in 7 patients (25.9%). Three of the 19 cases in the common ALL group relapsed at 6-12 months, whereas, 4 of the 8 cases in the non-common ALL group relapsed at 2-15 months. Probability of relapse at 12 months in the common and non-common ALL groups were 19 and 49 per cent respectively. Disease-free survival from time of remission was shorter in the non-common ALL group. Multivariate analysis of the 6 factors predicting disease-free survival showed that the only strong factor was the immunophenotype of lymphoblast.