Abstract
Introduction: Leukemia commonly known as blood cancer is the most common malignant neoplasm in childhood accounting for about 41 % of all malignancies that occur in children younger than 15 year of age. The objectives of this study were to find out the clinico-laboratory features and survival of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) during fourteen years in pediatric oncology unit of a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted at Kanti Children’s Hospital (KCH) from March 1998 to March 2012. Bone marrow aspiration showing ≥25 % blast cells was the criteria for diagnosis of ALL. Results: Out of 755 childhood cancers reported in this hospital during study period, total number of Acute leukemia patients were 375 (49.7%). Among acute leukemia, patients with ALL were 300, which was 80.0 % among all leukemias and 39.7% of all cases of cancers. Among cases of ALL, L1, L2 and L3 constituted 163 (54.3%), 131 (43.7%) and 6 (2%) respectively. The age of the children with acute leukemia ranged from six months to fourteen years, with a mean age of 7.3 years. The majority of children (61.7 %) with ALL fell into the age group of 2-9 years. Males: Female ratio was (M:F=1.3:1 ). The most common presenting features in ALL were fever (89.2 %), followed by splenomegaly (89.1%), hepatomegaly (69.2%) and lymphadenopathy (58.4 %). Among all patients, remission rate was 28.3% at ≥ 5 years, 17.7% were on maintenance, 30.3% abandoned treatment and 23.7 % died. Conclusion: This study showed that the patients on remission at ≥ 5 years in this centre were 28.3%. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jnps.v34i1.9056 J Nepal Paediatr Soc 2014;34(1):1-6
Highlights
Commonly known as blood cancer, is the most common malignant neoplasm in childhood accoun ng for about 41 % of all malignancies that occur in children younger than 15 year of age[1]
All confirmed cases of ALL6 in children up to 14 years of age a ending Kanti Children’s Hospital (KCH) from March 1998 to March 2012 were included in the study
Out of 755 childhood cancers reported in this hospital during study period, total number of Acute leukemia pa ents were 375 (49.7%)
Summary
Leukemia commonly known as blood cancer is the most common malignant neoplasm in childhood accounting for about 41 % of all malignancies that occur in children younger than 15 year of age. Commonly known as blood cancer, is the most common malignant neoplasm in childhood accoun ng for about 41 % of all malignancies that occur in children younger than 15 year of age[1]. It is defined as a group of malignant diseases in which gene c abnormali es in the hematopoie c system give rise to a clonal prolifera on of cells[1]. J Nepal Paediatr Soc 2014;34(1):[1,2,3,4,5,6]
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