[Factors influencing outcome in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (author's transl)]

Several factors such as age, sex, cytological type, visceromegaly, blast cell count in peripheral blood and recently some immunological traits, have been incriminated by some authors as having a variable prognostic value. Hypothetical influence of some of these factors on the rate and duration of the complete remission in an homogeneous group of 61 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia have been studied. All of them were treated with same schedule (C protocol) in order to eliminate therapy influence. Some differences, without statistical significance, have been found related to: A) Sex: Mean duration of complete remission has been longer in females. B) Blast cell count in peripheral blood: Patients with initial blast-cell values under 25.000/mm3 have shown an increased number of complete remissions and a longer duration of the complete remission. No relationship has been found between initial age or visceromegaly and duration of complete remission. Neither, no relationship between cytomorphologic type and rate and duration of the complete remission could be established in our series.