UICC World Cancer Congress 2006

Objective: Studies from various countries have increasing data of childhood leukemia however, only a few examples exist in developing Asian countries of the value of determining the immunologic characteristics of patients with ALL.

Methods:In the period between January 1990 and December 2002, 395 Indian children and adolescents (aged 0-25 years) were studied in a prospective way and data analyzed from the Cancer Institute (WIA ). Observation was carried out on 321 patients treated in the Department of Medical Oncology with uniform protocol. Immmunophenotypes were analysed by flow cytometry using conventional immunological markers

Results: Five major immunologic subtypes were disclosed, showing a series of specific surface markers: T-cell, 42.7%; 'common', 31.5%; Pre-B, 7.8%; Precursor-B, 6.5%; B-cell, 1.9%. T-cell phenotype (42.7%) was the most frequently encountered followed by Common ("CALLA-positive") ALL (31.5%). Haemorrhagic diathesis. splenomegaly, mediastinal mass, enlargement of peripheral lymph nodes as well as higher values of white blood cell count, blast count, haemoglobin concentration, haematocrit and LDH activity were observed more frequently in patients with T-cell leukaemia. Multivariate analysis of these subtypes was not statistically significant. Conclusion: The prognostic significance of some subtypes remains unclear. These results show that the incidence of the different immunologic subtypes their distribution according to age and sex are not similar to those reported among Caucasians. The results of this study should help strengthen the emerging leukaemia database in India and thereby contribute to a successful global attack against the haematological malignancies.