Abeer Ibrahim

Outcome of Adolescents with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Treated by Pediatrics versus Adults Protocols.

Objective. Several studies showed better outcome in adolescents and young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated with pediatrics protocols than similarly aged patients treated with adults protocols, while other studies showed similar outcome of both protocols. We conducted this study to compare the outcome of our pediatrics and adults therapeutic protocols in treatment of adolescents ALL. Patients and Methods. We retrospectively reviewed files of 86 consecutive adolescent ALL patients aged 15–18 years who attended to outpatients clinic from January 2003 to January 2010. 32 out of 86 were treated with pediatrics adopted BFM 90 high risk protocol while 54 were treated with adults adopted BFM protocol. We analyzed the effect of different treatment protocols on achieving complete remission (CR), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS). Results. The 2 patients groups have almost similar characteristics. The CR was significantly higher in pediatrics protocol 96% versus 89% (P = 0.001). Despite the fact that the toxicity profiles were higher in pediatrics protocol, they were tolerable. Moreover, the pediatrics protocol resulted in superior outcome in EFS 67% versus 39% (P = 0.001), DFS 65% versus 41% (P = 0.000), and OS 67% versus 45% (P = 0.000). Conclusion. Our studys findings recommend using intensified pediatrics inspired protocol to treat adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

JAK -2V617F Mutation in Acute Leukemia (South Egypt Experience)

Aim: To search for JAK2V617F mutation in patients with acute myeloid and acute lymphoblastic leukemia in south Egypt. Study Design: JAK2V617F mutation detected by amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS) -PCR. Place and Duration of Study: Department of clinical pathology and department of medical oncology, South Egypt Cancer Institute, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt, between December 2010 and December 2012. Method: We included 90 patients (58 men and 32 women; age range 2-67 years) with denovo acute leukemia (30 acute myeloid leukemia and 60 acute lymphoblastic leukemia), JAK-2 V617F mutation using ARMS-PCR was done for all the patients. Results: JAK-2 V617F mutation was absent in all of the studied patients. Conclusion: Our results confirm the finding published previously which reported that JAK2 V617F mutation is very rare or absent in acute leukemia.