Prognostic value of bone marrow hematogones in childhood B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Abstract:

Objective To study the prognostic value of hematogones (HGs) for childhood B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) during consolidation chemotherapy. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted for 196 children with newly-diagnosed B-ALL. They were divided into high-risk group (n=55), intermediate-risk group (n=69), and low-risk group (n=72) by risk stratification, and into complete remission group (n=165) and relapse group (n=31) by clinical outcome. The European BIOMED-1 standard flow cytometry for minimal residual disease (MRD) was used to determine the number of HGs during consolidation chemotherapy. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve was used to assess event-free survival (EFS). Results The high-risk group had a significantly lower number of HGs than the intermediate-risk and low-risk groups (P<0.05). The number of HGs in the complete remission group was significantly higher than in the relapse group (P<0.05). The children with HGs ≤1.0% had a significantly lower EFS than those with HGs >1.0% (P<0.05). Conclusions HGs can be used to assess the treatment outcome and prognosis in children with B-ALL, and proliferation of HGs reflects the good effect of chemotherapy in such children.