Abstract: PB1643
Type: Publication Only
Background
Leukaemia is the most common cancer in children. Childhood leukemia incidence and survival varies globally, and this could be associated with environmental risk factors, genetics, and improvement in diagnosis and treatment. Armenia is considered to be a mono ethnic nation.
Aims
We aimed to quantify the incidence of and mortality from acute leukaemias among children population in Armenia and their variation with gender, age, year of diagnosis.
Methods
In this work we included children diagnosed with de novo acute leukaemia, 0–18 years of age from 2006 to 2016. The initial data for this survey have been derived from ambulance/dispensary cards, hospitalization journals, and clinical data from the Registry of Blood Diseases at the R.Yeolyan Hematology Center, Yerevan, Armenia. The data has been supplemented by the data from the Registry of Oncological Diseases of the V. Fanarjyan NCO, as well as from death certificates. The demographic data has been obtained from the National Statistics Board of Republic of Armenia. The obtained data has been statistically analyzed using EPI INFO-2002 program.
Results
A total of 277 cases of childhood acute leukemia were identified, 174 (62.8%) of whom were male. The overall incidence of leukemia was 3.4 per 100 000 children-years. The higher incidence rates were noted in 2007, 2012, 2010 (accordingly 4.0, 4.0 и 3.9), and the lower rates in 2011, 2014, 2009 (accordingly 2.4, 2.4 и 2.9). There are three registrated regions in Armenia- Lori, Vayots Dzor and Tavush with higher incidence rate (respectively 0.020, 0.012 and 0.010 per 100 000 children-year). Currently 83.8% of studied patients are alive. The 5-year survival rate was 72%, 100%, and 100% among children diagnosed at 3–7, 7–13, and 13–18 years of age, respectively. The results indicated that the children diagnosed between ages of 3 and above had the lowest risk of mortality and higher survival rates.
Conclusion
This is the first general population study to describe the incidence of and mortality from childhood acute leukaemias in Armenia during 2006-2016. It forms the basis for quality assessment of acute leukaemia treatment in Armenia and offers a unique opportunity for population-based research. Age at diagnosis remained to be a crucial determinant of the survival variability of pediatric ALL patients, after adjusting for sex, race, therapy, primary tumor sites, immunophenotype, and year of diagnosis. Further research is warranted to disentangle the effects of age-dependent biological and environmental processes on this association.
Session topic: 2. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia - Clinical
