[Risk factors for recurrence of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia after treatment with the Chinese Children's Cancer Group ALL-2015 protocol].

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the cumulative incidence of recurrence (CIR) in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) after treatment with the Chinese Children's Cancer Group ALL-2015 (CCCG-ALL-2015) protocol and the risk factors for recurrence.

METHODS

A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 852 children who were treated with the CCCG-ALL-2015 protocol from January 2015 to December 2019. CIR was calculated, and the risk factors for the recurrence of B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) were analyzed.

RESULTS

Among the 852 children with ALL, 146 (17.1%) experienced recurrence, with an 8-year CIR of 19.8%±1.6%. There was no significant difference in 8-year CIR between the B-ALL group and the acute T lymphocyte leukemia group (>0.05). For the 146 children with recurrence, recurrence was mainly observed in the very early stage (=62, 42.5%) and the early stage (=46, 31.5%), and there were 42 children with bone marrow recurrence alone (28.8%) in the very early stage and 27 children with bone marrow recurrence alone (18.5%) in the early stage. The Cox proportional-hazards regression model analysis showed that positive fusion gene (=4.177, 95%: 2.086-8.364, <0.001) and minimal residual disease≥0.01% on day 46 (=2.013, 95%: 1.163-3.483, =0.012) were independent risk factors for recurrence in children with B-ALL after treatment with the CCCG-ALL-2015 protocol.

CONCLUSIONS

There is still a relatively high recurrence rate in children with ALL after treatment with the CCCG-ALL-2015 protocol, mainly bone marrow recurrence alone in the very early stage and the early stage, and minimal residual disease≥0.01% on day 46 and positive fusion gene are closely associated with the recurrence of B-ALL.