Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 11, 2026
In Vivo Osteo-organoid Approach for Harvesting Therapeutic Hematopoietic Stem/Progenitor Cells
Published on: February 16, 2024
Early Lymphocyte Recovery and Outcome in Osteosarcoma
Lynn Lee1, Lin Fei, Jennifer Pope
1*Division of Oncology †Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH ‡Division of Hematology/Oncology, Levine Children's Hospital, Charlotte, NC.
Background:
Early lymphocyte recovery following chemotherapy has been associated with improved outcome in many cancers, including in one small study of osteosarcoma patients.
Materials And Methods:
To confirm this finding, we retrospectively reviewed data from 53 patients with newly diagnosed osteosarcoma who had blood counts on day 14 (±1 d) following the first cycle of cisplatin and doxorubicin.
Results:
The median absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) 14 days after starting the first cycle of chemotherapy (ALC-14) was 1990 cells/μL (range: 600 to 6470). For 32 patients with an ALC-14≥1800 cells/μL, the 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) was 69%, compared with 33% for patients with an ALC-14 of <1800 cell/μL (P=0.036). In multivariable analysis of factors including age, sex, metastatic disease, and favorable histologic response to induction chemotherapy, ALC-14 was significantly associated with PFS (P=0.0081) and overall survival (P=0.0131). The use of ALC-14 appears to further stratify PFS and overall survival among patients when grouped by histologic response.
Conclusions:
We confirmed that early lymphocyte recovery was associated with outcome in pediatric osteosarcoma. Although presumably reflecting immune-mediated tumor control, the precise mechanism for this is unclear. Further study of peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulations in prospectively treated patients is underway.
