The changing survivorship of white and black children with leukemia

✍ Scribed by Dr Moyses Szklo; Dr Leon Gordis; James Tonascia; Eugene Kaplan

• Book ID: 102665963
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1978
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 546 KB
• Volume: 42
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-0142(197807)42:1<59::aid-cncr2820420109>3.0.co;2-j

✦ Synopsis

A study was conducted in metropolitan Baltimore to examine changes in survival of white and black children with acute leukemia from 1960 through 1975. Two-hundred eighty-seven cases were identified, of which 77% were acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). Eighty-three percent of all cases occurred in white children. In white children with ALL, two-year survival rates increased from 32% in 1960-64 to 47% in 1965-69, and to 79% in 1970-75 (p < .005). In the small sample of black children with ALL, two-year survival rates increased from 25% in 1960-64 to 59% in 1965-69 (p < .Ol), with no further increase in 1970-75. For acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL), survivorship was analyzed in white children, among whom one-year survival rates increased from 42% in 1965-69 to 71% in 1970-75 (p < .005). The increasingly better survival over time of white children with acute leukemia probably reflects the increasing efficacy of new therapeutic approaches. Cancer 42:59-66, 1978. HE LAST DECADE HAS WITNESSED an im-T pressive improvement in the therapy of acute leukemias of childhood, mostly the acute lymphocytic type.7,'4,'5 As a consequence, several investigators have recently examined time trends in prognosis of acute leukemias in children.10j19 However, studies have either been carried out in single instit u t i o n ~~~ or when conducted in multiple institutions, have not been popuIation-ba~ed.~*~~ In addition, few studies have simultaneously examined prognosis in both white and black chi1dren.l0,l7 A study was therefore conducted