A Seven-Years Experience in Treatment of Childhood all in Bulgaria

Abstract

After analyzing nonsatisfactory therapeutic results in the 1970s and early 1980s, the 81-01 treatment protocol of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute was initiated in 1987 in the Children's Oncohaematology Clinic in Sofia, Bulgaria. Two hundred thirty patients were enrolled with a period of observation of a minimum of 14 and a maximum of 97 months; the median age was 5.83 ±3.6 years. According to the original criteria, standard risk (SR) patients were 38.26% and high-risk (HR) patients 61.74%. The probability for event-free survival at Die seventh year estimated with the Kaplan-Meier method for the total group was 0.67 ± 0.04 (±SE) and 0.55 ± 0.09 and 0.81 ± 0.06 for HR and SR, respectively (P <. 001). Improvement of therapeutic results in terms of remission failures, early deaths, patients lost to follow-up, and rate of relapses is discussed.

Key Words:

• acute lymphoblastic leukemia
• event-free survival
• therapy results

Additional information

Notes on contributors

D. Konstantinov

Joyce Laing works in the Department of Child and Family Psychiatry, Playfield House, Cupar, Fife, and is a Consultant Art Therapist to Psychiatric Hospitals and Prisons and Chairwoman of the Scottish Society of Art and Psychology.

Dr Niculescu Dan, Centrul de Reumatologie, Str. J. (F)ucick no. 5, Bucuresti, Romania

Anni Vilppula, Department of Medicine, Paimio Hospital, Preitilä, Finland

G. Tausch, Department of Rheumatology, Municipal Hospital of Vienna-Lainz, Wolkersbergenstraße 1, A-1130Wien, Austria

Dr Guido Gothoni, Medica Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., P.O. Box 325, SF-00101 Helsinki 10, Finland

A. Elman, Dept. of Rheumatology, Karolinska sjukhuset, Stockholm, Sweden

Hannu Paitälä, Rheumatism Foundation Hospital, Heinola, Finland

Jonas Jonsson, National Bacteriological Laboratory, S-105 21 Stockholm, Sweden