Research Indicates Childhood Leukemia Survivors Living Longer

City of Hope
Saturday, 5 June 2004

Results Presented at American Society of Clinical Oncology Conference

Children who survived the form of leukemia called acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) for five years had a better than 90 percent chance of living 20 years or more after their diagnosis, according to a study presented today at the 40th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

The study supports other recent reports of survivors of other forms of cancer living longer today.

Smita Bhatia, MD, director, Epidemiology and Outcomes Research, Division of Pediatrics, City of Hope Cancer Center in Los Angeles, and one of the study's lead authors, said the research looked at 8,444 cases of ALL patients age 18 and younger when diagnosed who were treated between 1979 and 1990. Of those, 6,404 lived to five or more years after diagnosis. Among five-year survivors, the 20-year survival rate was 91 percent. Female patients had a slight survival advantage over male patients in the study. Sixty-two percent of those who did not survive died from relapse of the disease.

Another study reported by Dr. Bhatia at the ASCO meeting examined the long-term survival after hematopoietic cell transplantation performed in childhood or adolescence. The study authors reported that the overall survival approached 78 percent at 15 years and the mortality rate exceeds that of the general population after transplantation. Relapse of leukemia was also the leading cause of death in this group, Dr. Bhatia said.

City of Hope Cancer Center is one of the world's leading research and treatment centers for cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases. A pioneer in the fields of bone marrow transplantation and genetics, City of Hope is a Comprehensive Cancer Center, the highest designation of the National Cancer Institute, and a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. City of Hope's scientific knowledge is shared with medical centers locally and globally, helping patients around the corner and around the world.

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