ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Prognosis of children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL)--the most common cancer in childhood, has improved remarkably over the last 40 years. The authors report the treatment outcome in children with ALL cured according to ALL-BFM 90 Study protocol in the Czech Republic during the first half of nineties. METHODS AND RESULTS: Children aged 0-18 years were included into the study in 10 centers between 1990 to 1996. Patients were classified into standard-risk (SR), medium-risk (MR) and high-risk (HR) group according to initial leukaemic burden, early treatment response, and genotype of leukaemia. Duration of the chemotherapy was two years. Treatment results were evaluated in 352 children. With a median follow-up of 7.3 years, event-free-survival (EFS) was 71.3% and overall survival 76.4%. EFS was 80.3%, 74% and 28.2% in SR, MR and HR group, respectively. Relapse was diagnosed in 17.8% of the patients. CONCLUSIONS: The treatment outcome of children with ALL improved significantly (p = 0.0045) compared to the previous study ALL-BFM 83 (EFS 62%). These results are comparable to those achieved by leading leukaemia study groups in the world.
Subject(s)
Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/therapeutic use , Asparaginase/therapeutic use , Cyclophosphamide/therapeutic use , Cytarabine/therapeutic use , Daunorubicin/therapeutic use , Mercaptopurine/therapeutic use , Methotrexate/therapeutic use , Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma/drug therapy , Prednisone/therapeutic use , Vincristine/therapeutic use , Adolescent , Child , Child, Preschool , Disease-Free Survival , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Infant , Male , Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma/mortality , Prognosis , RecurrenceSubject(s)
Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/therapeutic use , Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma/drug therapy , Proto-Oncogenes , Transcription Factors , Analysis of Variance , Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/administration & dosage , Asparaginase/administration & dosage , Chromosomes, Human, Pair 11/genetics , Czech Republic/epidemiology , DNA-Binding Proteins/genetics , Daunorubicin/administration & dosage , Diploidy , Disease-Free Survival , Female , Genetic Predisposition to Disease , Histone-Lysine N-Methyltransferase , Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Male , Myeloid-Lymphoid Leukemia Protein , Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma/diagnosis , Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma/genetics , Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma/mortality , Prednisone/administration & dosage , Prognosis , Risk Factors , Translocation, Genetic , Vincristine/administration & dosageABSTRACT
The authors assessed in a group of children with malignant lymphoma the effect of dialysate of human leucocytes on some immunological indicators. Assessment of T lymphocytes by the E rosette test before and after administration of a dialysate of human leucocytes did not reveal any significant changes in the number of T lymphocytes. Similarly the assessed number of NK cells in the peripheral blood stream was not markedly affected. The immunostimulating action was manifested by an increased activation of lymphocytes assessed by the nuclear test and the blastic transformation test. In lymphocytic sub-populations examined by means of monoclonal antibodies a rise of CD4+ and T lymphocytes was recorded.
