Acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia in infants: clinical presentation and outcome

The presenting features and clinical outcome of acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia (ANLL) in infants and older children were compared to identify any differences that might suggest methods to improve therapy. Twelve of the 29 infants were boys and 17 were girls, with ages ranging from two days to 12 months (median, 7 months). By comparison with 222 patients greater than 1 year of age, infants were significantly more likely to have monoblastic or myelomonoblastic leukemia (P less than .0001), chloroma (P less than .0001), marked hepatomegaly (P = .001), and high leukocyte count (P = .005) and were less likely to have Auer rods (P less than .001). Each of these features except leukocyte count showed an association with infant ANLL in a multivariate analysis. Twenty-four (83%) of the infants attained a complete remission, a rate that was not significantly different from that of the older children. Even though infants had a significantly higher CNS relapse rate (P = .003), their event-free survival times were no different than those of older children (P = .74). Ten of the infants remain in initial complete remission for 5+ to 112+ months (median, 52+ months). Infants with ANLL did not have a poorer prognosis than older patients in our study; future protocols for this age group should emphasize more effective systemic therapy, preferably including an epipodophyllotoxin, as well as improved treatment for subclinical CNS leukemia.