Evaluation of seasonal changes in the diagnosis of acute leukemia in Turkey

Abstract

Objective: The etiology of acute leukemia (AL) has been under investigation for decades but the exact cause is still unknown. There are studies suggesting that infection plays a critical role in the development of AL in conjunction with other risk factors. In some studies, it has been shown that the incidence of AL increases after influenza endemics. This shows that viruses may play a role in the etiology. The theory that viruses might have a role in the etiopathogenesis created the idea that AL frequency may peak during some specific months; therefore, in this study, we aimed to research the relationship between AL diagnosis frequency and seasons in Turkey. 
 Method: 186 patients who were diagnosed with de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) diagnosis at our center were included in the study.
 Results: The frequency of ALL diagnoses were as follows: 25 (34.3%) in winter, 19 (26%) in spring, 15 (20.5%) in autumn, and 14 (19.2%) in summer. The frequency of AML diagnose was as follows: 24 (21.2%) in winter, 30 (26.6%) in spring, 27 (23.8%) in autumn and 32 (28.4%) in summer. In our study, we did not find a statistically significant relationship between AL diagnosis frequency and seasons.
 Conclusion: According to our literature review, there are two studies including our study, searching for a relationship between AL diagnosis frequency and seasons in Turkey. Neither of the studies found a relationship between AL and seasons. According to our analysis the numbers of the patient in studies are limited; therefore the studies with high number of patients are needed to find out a relation between seasons and diagnosis time of AL.