Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

  Background & Aim: AML accounts for about 15% of all childhood leukemia. The improvement has been seen over the past decades after treating with chemotherapy alone. The outcome has been better for children and it has had long term survival for all patients treated with BFM protocol chemotherapy. The aim of the present study was to investigate long-term survival in patients referred to Ali Asghar Children's Hospital.

  Patients and Method: The study was carried out on all 83 children with nonAPL AML who had been treated based on BFM protocol from 1988 to 2003 in Ali Asghar Children’s Hospital and did not receive blood or a marrow transplant. Through this study, information about sex, age, type of subgroup, clinical signs, treatment and survival (event free survival) was gathered in order to have better treatment and follow-up. This study was carried out as Cohort survey and the obtained data was analyzed via SPSS software.

  Results: Of 83 patients, 55 were male and 28 were female. The mean age of the cases was 7. 3 years old, ranging from 6 months to 13 years. 4% of the patients died during remission from complications of therapy. 10 patients (12%) did not respond to treatment after chemotherapy. 69 of the cases (83. 1%) gave complete response to therapy. Mean duration of follow-up was 5. 5 years. 36. 1% (30 cases) of the patients suffered relapse. EFS (event free survival) of the patients was 53. 62 ± 6%, and 5-year survival was 44. 58 ± 5. 46%.

  Conclusion: 30-50% of the patients treated with BFM protocol chemotherapy had long-term survival,while bone marrow transplant could raise long-term survival to 60-70%.