Treatment outcomes in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia: 40-year
experience from a single tertiary center in Thailand
Abstract
Background. Studies on the long-term treatment outcomes of
childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in resource-limited
countries are scarce. The purpose of this study was to assess the
evolution of survival outcomes of pediatric ALL in a tertiary care
center in Thailand over a 40-year period. Patients and methods.
We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of pediatric patients
who were diagnosed with ALL and treated at our center between June 1979
and December 2019. We classified the patients into 4 study periods
depending on the therapy protocol used to treat the patients (period 1:
1979-1986, period 2: 1987-2005, period 3: 2006-2013, and period 4:
2014-2019). The Kaplan Meier method was used to determine overall and
event-free survival for each group. The log-rank test was used to
identify statistical differences. Results. Over the study
period, 726 patients with ALL were identified, 428 boys (59%) and 298
girls (41%), with a median age at diagnosis of 4.7 years (range:
0.2–15 years). The study periods 1, 2, 3, and 4 had 5-year event-free
survival (EFS) rates of 27.6%, 41.6%, 55.9% and 66.4%, and 5-year
overall survival (OS) rates of 32.8%, 47.8%, 61.5%, and 69.3%,
respectively. From period 1 to period 4, both the EFS and OS rates
increased significantly (p<0.0001). Age, study period, and
white blood cell (WBC) count were all significant prognostic indicators
for survival outcomes. Conclusions. The overall survival of
patients with ALL treated in our center improved significantly over time
from 32.8% in period 1 to 69.3% in period 4.