Relapsed childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia: Experience from a
single tertiary center in Thailand
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined survival in relapsed childhood
acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in resource-limited countries. The
aims of this study were to evaluate the incidence, prognostic factors,
and survival of relapsed childhood ALL in Thailand. METHODS: The medical
records of patients with ALL aged <15 years in the major
tertiary care institution in Southern Thailand between January 2000 and
December 2019 were retrospectively reviewed. The Kaplan-Meier method was
used to depict the overall survival (OS). RESULTS: A total of 472
patients with ALL were enrolled. The incidence of relapsed ALL was
32.8%. Of the 155 relapsed patients, 131 (84.5%) and 24 (15.5%) had
B-cell and T-cell phenotypes, respectively. One hundred thirteen
(72.9%) and 42 (27.1%) patients had early and late relapses,
respectively. The most common site of relapse was bone marrow in 102
patients (65.8%). One hundred twenty-eight (82.6%) and 27 (17.4%)
patients received or refused the relapse chemotherapy, respectively. The
5-year OS of all relapsed patients was 11.9%. The 5-year OS among the
patients with early relapse was significantly lower than in the patients
with late relapse (5.3% vs. 29.1%, respectively, p <0.0001).
Site and immunophenotype were not associated with survival of relapsed
ALL. The patients who refused chemotherapy had a median survival time of
3.1 months. CONCLUSION: The relapse rate was one third of patients with
ALL. The 5-year OS was 12% and patients who refused chemotherapy had a
median survival time of 3 months.