Characteristics and prognosis of children with recurrent T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a long-term follow-up report in China

Abstract

This study assessed the relapse characteristics and prognosis of 145 children newly diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). The overall complete response (CR) rate was 91.7% (133/145), and the overall recurrence rate was 31.6% (42/133). The recurrence rate in the intermediate-risk (IR) group and high-risk (HR) group was 15.4% and 47.1%, respectively (p < 0.001). Patients with young age, early T-cell precursor ALL, central nervous system (CNS) involvement, TCRγ gene rearrangement, karyotypic abnormalities, or absence of TCRβ gene rearrangement (p < 0.05) tended to relapse. All recurrences occurred within 36 months after diagnosis. The HR group recurred earlier than the IR group (p= 0.026). The 3-year overall survival (OS) rate was significantly lower in the HR group than in the IR group (p < 0.001). All relapsed children died within 12 months after recurrence. Early intervention may benefit children with a high risk of recurrence.

Keywords:

• Child
• T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
• recurrence
• long-term follow-up

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all the study patients and the caregivers and physicians from the Division of Pediatric Blood Diseases Center, Institute of Hematology and Blood Diseases Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology.

Geolocation information

China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation Project [Process Nos. 81870131 and 81770175].