Comparison of treatment results in children with non-high risk acute lymphoblastic leukaemia treated according to ALL-BFM 90 and ALL-IC BFM 2002 regimens – single centre preliminary experience

SummaryBackgroundAcute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) represents about 30% of cancer in children and thus is the most common childhood malignancy. Despite the great progress, further improvement of treatment results remains an important problem.AimA comparison of the results of standard risk and intermediate risk group regimens ALL-BFM 90 and ALL IC-BFM 2002 was the subject of our study.Materials/MethodsA retrospective analysis of 41 (18 males and 23 females) children aged 2–15 years (median: 6 years) diagnosed from 25.01.1994 to 9.04.1997 and treated according to ALL-BFM 90 (group A), and 44 (22 males and 22 females) children aged 0-18 years (median: 7 years) diagnosed from 12.10.2002 to 31.12.2005 and treated according to ALL IC BFM-2002 regimen (group B) was performed. For statistical evaluation Kaplan–Meier methods and the log-rank test were used.ResultsRemission on time (day +33) was achieved in 39/41 (94%) children from group A and in 43/44 (98%) children from group B (p=0.07). The average day of achieving remission was 49 (range: 28–109; median: 46) in group A and 39 (range: 31–71; median: 35) in group B (p<0.001). Treatment failures observed in both groups were as follows: •death during induction therapy: 0/41 (0%) – group A, 1/44 (2%) – group B; p=0.954;•relapse: 2/41 (5%) – group A, 3/43 (7%) – group B; p=1.000•death after relapse: 2/2 (100%) – group A, 0/3 (0%) – group B; p=0.100.Probability of 43 months event-free survival (pEFS) was 95.2% in ALL-BFM 90 and 92.7% in ALL IC-BFM 2002 (p=0.452).Conclusions 1.The average day of achieving remission was significantly shorter in children treated according to ALL IC–BFM 2002.2.Although the number of relapses increased, there were no cases of death in relapsed patients observed in the ALL IC–BFM 2002 group.3.The follow-up was too short to evaluate the long-term effects of ALL treatment. Further observation of investigated groups of patients is necessary.