AUTHOR=Ochoa-Fernández Bárbara , Galán-Gómez Víctor , Guerra-García Pilar , Sanromán Sonsoles , Martínez Isabel , Bueno David , Mozo Yasmina , Sisinni Luisa , Losantos Itsaso , González Berta , Pérez-Martínez Antonio 

TITLE=Younger age and induction failure predict outcomes in infant leukemia: 30 years of experience in a tertiary center

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pediatrics

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pediatrics/articles/10.3389/fped.2023.1166176

DOI=10.3389/fped.2023.1166176

ISSN=2296-2360

ABSTRACT=Objectives: To evaluate the characteristics and outcomes of infant patients with leukemia. Methods: Retrospective analysis of a 39-patient cohort diagnosed with infant leukemia during the 1990-2020 period who underwent treatment at the pediatric haemato-oncology department of a tertiary hospital in Madrid, Spain. Results: Of the 588 diagnosed cases of childhood leukemia, 39 (6.6%) were infant leukemia. The 5-year event-free survival and 5-year overall survival was 43.6% (SE 4.1) and 46.5% (SD 24.08), respectively. In an univariate analysis, younger age at diagnosis was associated with poorer outcomes (p=0.027), as was induction failure (p=0.0024). Patients treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation had better outcomes than non-transplanted patients (p=0.001); however, the group comparisons that exclude patients unable to undergo transplantation due to refractoriness/relapse or death during treatment showed no significant differences. Conclusions: The main risk factors that affected survival in our study were an age younger than 6 months and a poor response to induction therapy. It is important to identify poor prognostic factors in this population in order to seek different approaches that could improve outcomes.