Bone Remodeling in Children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A Two-Year Prospective Longitudinal Study

Childhood leukemia survivors are at risk of long-term complications. Data on bone remodeling in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) are limited. This 2-year prospective longitudinal study investigated bone remodeling and bone turnover markers at diagnosis, during treatment, and until stopping treatment, in ALL patients < 18 years, to clarify the influence of leukemia itself and/or chemotherapy on bone.

A total of 22 ALL children (12 males, age 5.5 ± 3.6 years) underwent blood sampling at the 5 time point (T0-T4). Osteoprotegerin (OPG), receptor-activator-NF-B-ligand (RANKL), osteocalcin (OC), C-terminal-telopeptide-type-I-collagen (CTX), bone-alkaline-phosphatase (bALP), tartrate-resistant acid-phosphatase-5b (TRACP5b), procollagen-type-I-N-terminal-propeptide (P1NP), Dickkopf-1 (DKK-1), and sclerostin were assessed. Data from patients at T0 were compared to a control group of healthy children. We used the principal component analysis (PCA) for statistics.

Levels of CTX, OC, P1NP, and bALP resulted lower in ALL children than controls (p = 0.009 for CTX and p < 0.001 for the others), also DKK1 and sclerostin (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.023). RANKL ed OPG were higher in patients. During T0-T4, CTX, OC, P1NP, TRACP5b, and bALP showed a significant increase, in particular at T0-T1 (end-of-induction). Less evident changes were detected onwards.

The onset of leukemia has been revealed as a key point in determining a slowing of bone remodeling in ALL children.