Five-year survival rate of pediatric leukemia and its determinants

Leukemia is the most prevalent cancer among children that its survival rate varies in different parts of the world. The aim of the present study was to estimate five-year survival rate of acute pediatric leukemia including acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) and then to reveal its determinants among a group of 15 years old children visiting Shiraz ShahidFaghihi hospital from 2004 to 2008.

In a retrospective cohort study, to measure survival rate, all of the diagnosed patients with ALL and MLL (280 patients) were entered into analysis. The required data were obtained from patients registered files. To conduct analyses, Kaplan-Meyer and ordinal logarithm methods were used. Modeling of data was undertaken using by SPSS software and Cox regression method.

The average follow-up period was about 28.2±16.1 months (range: 6.4-67.4) during which 60 patients (24.7%) (47 ALL cases and 15 MLL cases) passed away. Cumulative five-year survival rate was estimated to be 53.3±0.055 percent. Cox regression model revealed that there was a significant relationship between Platelet count and number of elapses with leukemia survival rate.

Our study showed that platelet count and number of relapses are effective factors on leukemia patient's survival. Thus, to extend the survival of these patients, these factors should be counted on.