Treatment of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Cambodia

Abstract

We report a retrospective analysis of 110 unselected pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated during 2015–2017 in a charity-funded public institution in Cambodia with a reduced intensity ALL-Moscow Berlin (MB)-91 protocol. No patient abandoned treatment. Sixty-three patients (57%) were high risk (HR). Seventy-two patients (65.5%) reached complete remission (CR) on day 36. The 3-year event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) was 34.9% (50.5% for standard risk [SR]). Most deaths resulted from infections (40 [53.3%]) and bleeding (15 [20%]). With further selective reduction of treatment intensity and access to platelet infusion, leukemia therapy is justified in this setting.