Survival improvement by decade of patients aged 0-14 years with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a SEER analysis

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Oncology
• Epidemiology
• Cancer Survival Rates

Background:

• Assessing long-term treatment outcomes for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is crucial for understanding therapeutic progress.
• The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database provides a valuable resource for analyzing population-based cancer survival data.

Observation:

• This study analyzed 12,096 pediatric ALL patients diagnosed between 1981 and 2010 across 18 SEER sites.
• Five-year survival improved from 74.8% to 88.6%, and 10-year survival increased from 69.3% to 85.5% over the three decades.
• While survival improved across most age groups, infants with ALL showed persistently low 10-year survival rates (54.7%).
• Girls consistently demonstrated higher survival rates than boys, particularly in the 0-14 age group during 2001-2010 (10-year relative survival: 87.8% vs. 83.6%).

Findings:

• Pediatric ALL survival rates have shown a statistically significant, decade-over-decade improvement.
• Significant progress was noted in older children (10-14 years), with a >20 percentage point increase in 10-year survival.
• Disparities in survival rates were observed based on age (infants) and sex (girls vs. boys).

Implications:

• The findings highlight the substantial impact of evolving treatment strategies on pediatric ALL outcomes.
• Further advancements in targeted and personalized therapies are expected to continue improving survival rates for childhood ALL.
• Addressing specific challenges in infant ALL and understanding sex-based differences may further enhance treatment efficacy and outcomes.