Features of Childhood Acute Myeloid Leukemia in Iran: a Report from Double Center Study

Abstract

Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia is one of the important malignancies in children. For better managing the prognosis of this disease, there should be enough information about common features of this malignancy. The aim of this study was to evaluate these common features in children with Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia. A total of 104 eligible children less than 15-year-old have been referred from 2007-2011 to two referral centers for childhood malignancies. Basic epidemiological information recorded in checklists for each individual. Analyzes have been done by SPSS version 22. Out of patients, 57 cases were males (54.8%). The male/female ratio was 1.2. The mean age of patients was 6.5 ± 4.3 years. The majority subtypes of patients were M3, M4, non-M3, and M2, respectively. The common molecular abnormalities were t (15;17) and inv (16). Of patients, 19.2% had an early relapse. The mean age of relapse in patients was 6.7 ± 3.9 years. Sixty patients (57.7%) were alive, and 44 cases (42.3%) died during or after therapy. The three years overall survival rate of patients was 42% in this study. According to our data, AML has the same frequency as compared with data from developing countries. But different epidemiological characteristic was a lower rate of three years overall survival in patients. These data may serve the health authorities for more effective environmental and preventive measurements, purposeful allocation of resources for facilitating up-to-date diagnostic and treatment modalities, psychological support programs for respective family members and educational purposes.