new YORK (Reuters Health) – children with a type of
leukemia live longer than before, perhaps because fewer patients
suffer relapses with new pharmacological combinations.
In a study of more than 20,000 babies, children and
teens with cancer of the blood and bone marrow, the
chance to survive at least five years from the
diagnosis increased from 84 to 90 percent between 1990 and the
2000.
“Knew that there was a positive trend (in the
survival), but suspected that the process of improvement
was slower”, said Dr. Stephen Hunger, Faculty of
medicine of the University of Colorado and children’s Hospital of
Colorado, in United States.
In addition, the Hunger team was “happy” to see a
steady reduction in mortality from Leukemia in children
small and larger, as well as in those with forms
more or less serious disease.
For people with leukemia acute lymphoblastic (all), that
it is the most common pediatric cancer type, the bone marrow produces
too many immature to remove white blood cells the
infections.
50 Years, all caused death within a few years.
But the survival rate grew to measure that doctors
were getting more tools to treat.
Now, the team consulted information of the
participants of the Pediatric Oncology Group studies
over half of American with leukemia children
diagnosed between 1990 and 2005.
El 83.7 per cent of 21,360 children and adolescents of
up to 22 years diagnosed between 1990 and 1994 he had survived
the 80.1 per cent, at least 10 years and five years.
El 90.4 per cent of patients diagnosed between the
2000 and 2005 still alive five years later. The rate of
10-year survival also recorded a positive trend
according to published authors in Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The team noted that the youngest children and the
adolescents were less likely to die from Leukemia in the
recent years. The same happened with the white patients,
African-Americans and Hispanics, and those with forms more and less
aggressive cancer.
The only exception were infants, which tend to
develop a very aggressive form of the disease. Only the
half of them survived five years after the diagnosis
during the studied period.
Team estimated that the babies were 2 percent of
all leukemia cases studied, although they reached the 8
percent of all deaths.
“This suggests that we should improve the attention of support
“
for babies and develop more effective therapies with new
“
drugs”, felt Hunger.
New treatment regimens
Chemotherapy to treat leukemia did not change too
in recent years. However, the researchers say
to advances in combinations and pharmacological doses
to prevent the reappearance of the disease led the
increase in survival.
Hunger not attributed the increase in survival to five
years to more early diagnosis of cancers and hopes that the
reduction of mortality is maintained in the coming years.
“This is a breakthrough in terms of results, in
“”
special in the past 10 or 15 years”, said Dr. Ching-Hon
Pui, director of research at the Hospital leukemia
Paediatric of research St. Jude in Memphis.
Pui pointed out that this increase in survival coincides with
the registered in the United Kingdom and Holland, among others
countries, and attributed the success of new treatments to the
international medical collaboration.
This includes the development of better antibiotics and other
drugs to treat infections associated to the
chemotherapy. This, said Pui, allows that the
young patients receive intensive with less treatments
risks.
But the investigator, who did not participate in the study, clarified
survive 10 or five years after the diagnosis no
is equivalent to “be cured”. Children treated with radiotherapy
still have risk of developing other cancers decades
then, something that the study would have not been able to detect.
“Yet much remains to be done, but (the study) is a good
“”
News”, said Pui.
And Hunger coincided. “These results are very rewarding,
but there is still a 10-15 per cent of the children and the
with all adolescents will die this year from the disease”,
indicated.
Source: Journal of Clinical Oncology, online 12 March of the
2012
