Epidemiology of Long-Term Survival with Acute Leukemia

Abstract

To define factors distinguishing long-term from short-term survivors among children with acute leukemia, 59 who survived for at least five years were compared with 59 who survived for two years or less. The two groups were matched for age, sex, histology and time and physician of treatment. Seven traits characterized the patient with the highest likelihood of short-term survival. Short-term survivors differed from the long-term in having had a high initial white-cell count; their mothers were less likely to have had complications during their pregnancies with the subjects, were more likely to have had a history of disease, viral and other, in the five-year period before the subject's birth, were more likely to have had irradiation when pregnant with the subject, and were more apt to have been older at their first live birth; the subject was more likely to have been a product of a third or later pregnancy. Thus, of the characteristics examined, those relating to the mother's pregnancy and disease history appeared most cogent. (N Engl J Med 290:583–587, 1974)