A prospective, controlled evaluation of home chemotherapy for children with cancer.

OBJECTIVES: Infusion of chemotherapy at home provides an alternative to hospitalization for children with cancer. Few programs of pediatric home chemotherapy have been described or evaluated. The purpose of this work was to compare prospectively chemotherapy in the hospital to chemotherapy at home with respect to billed medical charges, out-of-pocket expenses, and quality of life. METHODS: Eligibility criteria for home therapy were defined. Parents and nurses were trained. Billed charges, loss of wages, out-of-pocket expenses, medical outcome, and quality of life of 14 patients for one course of chemotherapy in the hospital were compared with those for an identical course at home. RESULTS: Daily charges for chemotherapy were $2329 +/- 627 in the hospital and $1865 +/- 833 at home; out-of-pocket costs, $68 +/- 31 and $11 +/- 6, respectively; and loss of income, $265 +/- 233 and $67 +/- 107, respectively. Patients' independence, well-being, appetite, mood, and school work were significantly better at home, and parental time at work and with the family was greater. CONCLUSION: Administration of selected chemotherapy at home results in lower billed charges, reduced expenses, reduced loss of income for parents, and a more satisfying lifestyle for patients and parents.

Neurological complications of bone marrow transplantation in childhood.

Bone marrow transplantation, used in the treatment of cancer, aplastic anemia, and metabolic diseases, involves the use of potentially neurotoxic agents to suppress immunity and eradicate malignancy. Fifty-seven patients with a median age of 11 years (age range, 6 months to 24 years) underwent bone marrow transplantation at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Fifty-nine percent developed neurological abnormalities. Twenty-six patients (46%) had central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction, including infection (8), cerebrovascular accident (5), CNS leukemia (7), metabolic encephalopathy (5), and paraparesis with CNS toxoplasmosis (1). Neuropsychological dysfunction was present in 4 of 5 long-term survivors who were tested. Fourteen of 19 patients (74%) on whom postmortem examination was performed were found to have CNS abnormalities, including cerebral atrophy (10), focal cerebral injury (6), leukemia (5), and infection (3). Fourteen patients (24%) had peripheral nervous system dysfunction. CNS dysfunction was more common in patients with lymphoreticular malignancies. Cerebrovascular accidents (in patients with lymphoreticular malignancies) and infections (in our general population and in patients with lymphoreticular malignancies) occurred more often in our patients than in patients with similar illnesses who did not undergo bone marrow transplantation. The combination of prior treatment and preparative therapy for bone marrow transplantation predisposes patients to neurological and neuropsychological sequelae.

Bone marrow transplantation in chronic granulomatous disease.

A 5-month-old Amish infant boy with chronic granulomatous disease underwent bone marrow transplantation from his 5-year-old, histocompatible brother after a preconditioning regimen of busulfan 2 mg/kg/day for 4 days, followed by cyclophosphamide 50 mg/kg/day for 4 days. At the time of bone marrow transplantation, he was free of infection, and remained so throughout the course of the transplant. He was engrafted promptly, with complete reversal of the neutrophil function defect and no sign of graft-versus-host disease. This was followed by loss of the erythroid graft and deterioration in neutrophil function over a period of 9 months. Sixteen months after transplantation, he is free of infection and growing normally, with essentially no evidence for neutrophil engraftment.

Treatment of advanced neuroblastoma with supralethal chemotherapy, radiation, and allogeneic or autologous marrow reconstitution.

Ten children with recurrent metastatic (stage IV) neuroblastoma received local radiation therapy, supralethal chemotherapy, and total-body irradiation. Rescue with infusions of either allogeneic (four patients) or autologous (six patients) bone marrow followed. The drugs given to the first two patients were individualized combinations based on previous tumor responses. Both patients died with recurrent tumor three and nine months posttransplant. The eight remaining patients were treated more uniformly with local irradiation, VM-26, doxorubicin, melphalan (L-phenylalanine mustard), and 1,000-rad total-body irradiation in three fractions. Two of these patients had cardiac dysfunction and received no doxorubicin. Three children died in the immediate posttransplant period with disseminated fungal infections. A fourth relapsed and died nine months posttransplant. As of December 1, 1983, two children who received allogeneic marrow grafts have survived in complete remission for 54 and 36 months, and two children who received autologous marrow grafts have survived in complete remission for 35 and 22 months. These results suggest that relapsed metastatic neuroblastoma can be controlled by supralethal combinations of chemotherapy and irradiation coupled with bone-marrow rescue.

Total body irradiation as preparation for bone marrow transplantation in treatment of acute leukemia and aplastic anemia.

In an attempt to improve survival while minimizing toxicity, many bone marrow transplant centers are now studying the use of cytoreduction regimens with an increased amount of radiation in single-dose or fractionated-exposure schedules for patients with leukemia and aplastic anemia. In order to review the current results, the literature prior to September, 1982 was surveyed and data were tabulated for each transplant center regarding the number of patients receiving transplants, diagnoses, cytoreducation regimen, clinical status, revission duration, relapse rate, causes of death and incidence of interstitial pneumonia. The incidence and severity of cataracts, growth failure, hypothyroidism and second malignant neoplasms were noted, and the data obtained from the literature search were updated and expanded by telephone questionnaire when possible. Marked variation in the technique of transplantation was found among the participating institutions, making it difficult to determine the contribution of the various TBI doses, dose rates and fractionation schedules to the efficacy and toxicity of the combined regimen. In order to define the risk-benefit ratio of the various TBI regimens more clearly, prospective controlled, randomized studies will be required.