Publication Date:
2011-11-18
Description:
Abstract 873 Background. Philadelphia chromosome positive (Ph+) ALL accounts for 3–5% of pediatric ALL. An international survey on 640 children diagnosed between 1995 and 2005 and treated with chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation (SCT) without the use of tyrosin kinase inhibitors (TKI) recently reported an overall 7-year event free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) of 31.2% and 44.2%, respectively. In those years, only limited experience was accumulated on the use of Imatinib (IM) for children with Ph+ leukemia. The EsPhALL study was designed as an intergroup, open-label, randomized Phase II/III study, within the I-BFM-SG network, to assess the safety and efficacy of IM in association with chemotherapy. Ten national study groups participated in the study: AIEOP, BFM-G/CH, COALL, FRALLE, NOPHO, MRC, DCOG, CPH, PINDA and HONG KONG. Methods. Patients 1 to 18 years of age diagnosed with Ph+ ALL were eligible to the study. After the induction phase according to national treatment protocol, patients were classified as Good Risk (GR) or Poor Risk (PR) according to their response to treatment. GR patients were those who achieved both the early response (i.e. blast cell count
Print ISSN:
0006-4971
Electronic ISSN:
1528-0020
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine