0000000000172255
AUTHOR
Giuseppe Masera
Acute and chronic hepatitis in childhood leukemia: a multicentric study from the Italian Pediatric Cooperative Group for Therapy of Acute Leukemia (AIL-AIEOP).
The incidence of acute and chronic liver damage and its relation to hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection was evaluated in 164 consecutive children with acute leukemia seen in ten Italian hemato-pediatric units. Thirteen out of 164 children (7.9%) had acute hepatitis (AH) during treatment, while 8/90 (8.8%) showed an acute exacerbation of liver damage within 6 months after therapy withdrawal. Seven of the 13 children with AH while on therapy were HBsAg positive. In 12/13 cases, liver disease progressed to chronicity. Five of eight children who developed AH after completion of treatment were HBsAg positive. Eighty-nine patients (54.2%) developed biochemical evidence of chronic hepatitis during t…
SETIL: Italian multicentric epidemiological case–control study on risk factors for childhood leukaemia, non hodgkin lymphoma and neuroblastoma: study population and prevalence of risk factors in Italy
Background Aetiology of childhood leukaemia and childhood neoplasm is poorly understood. Information on the prevalence of risk factors in the childhood population is limited. SETIL is a population based case–control study on childhood leukaemia, conducted with two companion studies on non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) and neuroblastoma. The study relies on questionnaire interviews and 50 Hz magnetic field (ELF-MF) indoor measurements. This paper discusses the SETIL study design and includes descriptive information. Methods The study was carried out in 14 Italian regions (78.3% of Italian population aged 0–10). It included leukaemia, NHL and neuroblastoma cases incident in 0–10 year olds in 1998–20…
Road Traffic Pollution and Childhood Leukemia: A Nationwide Case-control Study in Italy
Background The association of childhood leukemia with traffic pollution was considered in a number of studies from 1989 onwards, with results not entirely consistent and little information regarding subtypes. Aim of the study We used the data of the Italian SETIL case-control on childhood leukemia to explore the risk by leukemia subtypes associated to exposure to vehicular traffic. Methods We included in the analyses 648 cases of childhood leukemia (565 Acute lymphoblastic–ALL and 80 Acute non lymphoblastic-AnLL) and 980 controls. Information on traffic exposure was collected from questionnaire interviews and from the geocoding of house addresses, for all periods of life of the children. Re…
A single high dose of idarubicin combined with high-dose ARA-C for treatment of first relapse in childhood ‘high-risk’ acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: a study of the AIEOP group
The outcome of children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and early relapse remains unsatisfactory. In January 1995, the AIEOP (Associazione Italiana di Oncologia ed Ematologia Pediatrica) group opened a trial for children with ALL in first isolated or combined bone marrow relapse defined at high risk according to the length of first remission and the immunophenotype. The treatment plan included the combination of a single high-dose idarubicin and high-dose cytarabine as induction therapy followed by an intensive consolidation and stem cell transplant (SCT). In total, 100 children from 16 Italian centres were enrolled; 80 out of the 99 evaluable patients (81%) achieved second complet…
Childhood high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia in first remission: results after chemotherapy or transplant from the AIEOP ALL 2000 study
The outcome of high-risk (HR) Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) patients enrolled in AIEOP-BFM ALL 2000 study (NCT00613457) in Italy is described. Overall, 1999 Philadelphia negative ALL patients entered the study. HR criteria were: minimal residual disease (MRD) levels ≥10-3 at day 78 (HR-MRD), no complete remission (no-CR) at day 33, t(4;11) translocation, Prednisone Poor Response (PPR). Treatment (2 years) included protocol I, 3 polychemotherapy blocks, delayed intensification (protocol IIx2 or IIIx3), cranial radiotherapy, maintenance. 312 HR patients (15.6% of the total) had 5-year event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) of 58.9%(SE 2.8) and 68.9%(2.6). In hierarchical ord…
Italian registry of patients off therapy after childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Results after first phase of data collection
The Italian Registry of Off-Therapy patients after childhood tumors now includes 760 subjects with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. These patients were all removed from treatment by December 31, 1981, and were followed in 35 different institutions. All the children have received multiple-drug treatment, combined, in 79.7% of the cases, with cranial irradiation. Thirty-nine (5%) experienced a relapse before treatment suspension. Total duration of antileukemic therapy ranges between 18 and 131 months (median, 38). At the last updating (December 31, 1981), 699 subjects were alive, 6 were lost to follow-up, and 55 had died. Life-table analysis shows that 90.8% were alive and 77% were alive in cont…