Haemato-oncology‎ > ‎

Childhood malignancies

ALL

§        2-6 years

§        80% B cells, 20% T cells

§        90% survival

 

t(12:21) Tel-AML1

Most common mutation – good risk

97% overall survival

Hyperdiploidy +4, +10, +17, +18

Good risk

t(1;19)

Previously poor – now standard

v(11q23)

Poor - infants

t(9;22)

Poor

t(8;14)

Burkitt-like

iAMP 21

Bad risk – early transplant

 

 

Clinical Features

§        Marrow failure

§        Hepatosplenomegaly and lymphadenopathy

§        Bone pain

 

Diagnosis

§        Pancytopenia with circulating blasts

§        PB may show pancytopenia without blasts (aleukaemic)

§        DD is AA

§        Confirm with marrow immuno and cytogenetics

 

Treatment – current trail UKALL 2003

§        Front line therapy based on NCI risk

§        Age 1 - 10  and wcc < 50 = Standard

§        Age <1 or >10 or WC > = Poor

 

1.      Remission induction

§        98% expected to achieve CR

§        Dexamethasone, vincrisitine, asparaginase, 6 mercaptopurine

§        Anthracycline added if high risk

 

§   MRD performed on day 28 (strongest prognostic marker) and this dictates which regimen is used for condolidation and maintainance.

 

§   MRD on marrow doesn’t predict for CNS relapse

 

2.      Consolidation/ intensification

§        Children with <5% blasts can still have up to 1010 tumour cells

§        Aim of consolidation is to rapidly reduce tumour burden before drug resistence develops

§        Anthracyclines, cytarabine, cyclophos, asparaginase, methotrexate, 6-mercaptopurine

 

3.      CNS directed treatment

§        Cytarabine, MTX and hydrocortisone more effective than MTX alone

 

4.      Maintenance with or without delayed intensification

§        Maintainance continues for 2-3 years

§        Oral 6-mercaptopurine daily, weekly MTX and pulsed dexamethasone and vincristine

§        Doxorubicin added if high risk

 

 

§   Tranplantation

§        Treatment of choice for children with Ph+ve ALL in 1st CR

§        Can be used for patients with late relapse

§        Increasing use of cord and unrelated donor transplants

 

§   B-ALL is an exception and treated on an intensive lymphoma schedule

 

§        Outlook

§   2% induction death rate, usually due to infection

§   98% remit

§   75-80% long term survival

§   Other side effects

§        Thrombosis and pancreatitis secondary to asparaginase

§        AVN (10-15years)

 

§        Treatment of relapse

§        25% relapse

§        Relapse on treatment = poor prognosis

§        Salvage therapy more successful if after 2 years

§        BMT reserved for those who are slow to clear residual disease, relapse on treatment or have relapsed T-ALL

 

§        Prognostic factors

§        Poor

§        <1 year, >10 years

§        Wcc > 50

§        boys

§        MLL (infants with organomegaly often t(4:11)

§        Bcr-Abl

§        Hypodiploidy

§        Internal amplification 21

§        T-ALL

§        Slow to clear disease

§        MRD positive in 1st CR

 

§        Long-term sequalae

§        Growth failure

§        Intellectual deficit

§        Precocious puberty

§        Infertility

§        Obesity

§        Increased risk of brain tumours



NHL

§        Disseminated high grade

 

B-cell 60%

Abdominal/ nasopharyngeal masses

§   Burkitt 42%

§        Pathologically indistinguishable from B-ALL

§        8;14 with dysregulation of MYC

§        DLBCL 3%

§        Abdominal > mediastinal

§   Pre- BALL 5%

§        Pathologically indistinguishable from common ALL

§        Commonly present as a solitary subcutaneous swelling on scalp

T-cell 40%

§        Large cell anaplastic 15%

§        Nodes/ skin

§        KI-1, CD30+

§        T(2;5)

§        Pre- TALL 20%

§        Mediastinal masses

§        Pathologically indistuigishable form T-ALL

§        66% have mediastinal involvement

 

§        Staging = St Judes (I-IV)

 

Treatment

Burkitts and DLBCL

§        LMB type protocol – different regimens depending on stage

§        Usually involves COPADM (high dose methotrextae and high dose ARA-C) and intrathecals

§        Risk of infertility

§        Very few relapses

Pre-B ALL and Pre-T ALL

§   With large mediastinal masses, may be too compromised for a GA to allow tissue diagnosis, therefore steroids may be started first

§   Treated with Euro LB – similar to ALL protocol

§   2 years maintenance rather than 3 years

Anaplastic

§   Treated with modified B cell regimens

§   90% EFS

 



AML

§   Therapy similar to adults

§   Anthracycline and cytaribine induction – 2 courses

§   Followed by 2-3 further courses of intensive chemotherapy

§   Transplantation reduces survival in both good and poor risk and is therefore rarely performed

 

§   MRD monitoring if possible – about 40% have a marker to follow

 

§        Causes of death

§        Infection             

§        Use combination antifungals (ambisone and caspofungin)

§        Haemorrhage

§        Greatest in high white counts, which is usually M5 (>50) – need to give anthracycline ASAP – often given D 1, 2, 3 rather than 1, 3, 5

§   Cardiac

§   free radicals generated form anthracycline are toxic to myocytes resulting in fatty replacement and cardiomyopathy = irreversible

§   Very young and girls are at greatest risk

§   Almost one third get cardiac event

§   At times of stress (eg. Pubertal growth spurt, pregnancy), may develop cardiac failure – 6% overall

 

APML (AML-M3)

§   Treatment is similar to Spanish protocol, but with less anthracycline

§   Molecular monitoring

§   Still prone to retinoic acid syndrome – 15% - risk increased with WC >10

 

Downs (AML-DS)

1.      20x more likely to develop leukaemia

§        Infants (1-4years) – M7

§        Often prodromal dysplastic phase (RAEB)

§        GATA-1 mutations which lead to transient abnormal myelopoiesis – 2nd hit then leads to AML

§        Highly curable with reduced dose chemo (OS around 60%)

§        Marrow difficult to aspirate due to fibrosis

§        Older children  ALL

2.      Transient abnormal myelopoiesis

§        Mimics leukaemia

§        Self-limiting within days-weeks (neonates)

§        Not associated with marrow failure

§        No genetic abnormality other than trisomy 21

§        Mediated by a GATA 1 mutation

§        Rarely arises in non-down children in whom trisomy 21 can be found only in the bone marrow

§        Common cytogenetic abnormalities in childhood AML

 

Abnormality

Genes

FAB

Frequency

Clinical Features

8;21

ETO-AML1

M2

10-15%

Chloromas

Good prognosis

15;17

PML-RARA

M3

5-10%

Coagulopathy

Good prognosis

Inv16

MYH11-CBFB

M4Eo

7-10%

Extramedullary deposits

Good prognosis

9;11

AF9-MLL

M4/M5

7-10%

Infants

CNS disease

Poor prognosis

Monosomy 7

 

 

 

Poor  prognosis

5q-

 

 

 

Poor  prognosis

T(6;9)

 

 

 

Poor  prognosis

T(9;22)

 

 

 

Poor  prognosis

Abnormal 12p

 

 

 

Poor  prognosis

1;22

n/k

M7

2-3%

Secondary MF

Downs syndrome

 



Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukaemia

§        Clonal with all cell lines involved, but mainly granulocytic and monocytic

§        1.3 per million children up to 14 years

§        75% in children <3 years

§        10% occur in children with NF1

§        Association with Noonan’s

§        Blood and bone marrow show myelomonocytic proliferation

§        Liver and spleen viturally always involved

§        Diagnostic criteria

1.      PB monocytes >1

2.      Blasts incl promonocytes <20% of wbcs in blood and of nucleated marrow cells

3.      No Ph

4.      2 or more of the following

§        HbF increased for age

§        Immature granulocytes in blood

§        Wcc >10

§        Clonal chromosomal abnormality

§        Monosomy 7

§        GM-CSF hypersensitivity of myeloid progenitors in vitro

 

Comparison with CML

 

CML

JMML

Age

>4

<4

M:F

1:3

3:1

Lymphadenopathy

Rare

Common

Rash

Rare

Common

Wbc

>100

<100

Platelets

Increased

Decreased

Monocytes

Normal 

Increased

HbF

Normal 

Increased

Cytogenetics

>90% Ph positive

Ph negative, Monosomy 7, normal

 

§        Clinical features

1.      Maculopapular rash in 40-50%

2.      Dysplasia is often minimal

§        Prognosis

1.      Poor

2.      Better if <1 year

3.      Relatively few evolve to acute leukaemia

4.      Most die from organ failure, such as respiratory failure due to leukaemic infiltration

5.      BMT only therapy which clearly improves survival - 60% cured

6.      Chemotherapy/ splenectomy for symptom control only

 



CML

§   1 in 100,000 children

§   Median age 12-13years

§   95% Ph +ve, 5% Ph –ve but Bcr-Abl mRNA +ve

 

§        No published data to suggest any difference in the natural history compared with adult disease, but anecdotally more children present in accelerated phase and have rapid unpredicted transformation to blast crisis.

 

§        Leucostasis appears to be more common, but may be because presents later due to the fact that most are teenagers at diagnosis.

 

Management

§   HLA type siblings

§   Cryopreserve patient stem cells (in case of graft failure)

 

Chronic phase

§   Sibling SCT or imatinib

§   Equivalent 5 year survival of 90%

§   Preferance of parents is often to go for curative procedure

§   If have suboptimal response – by Bacharani criteria (ie no MmolR at 18 months) need SCT

§   VUD 70% 5 year survival, therefore not recommended up front

§   HU used for initial disease control only

§   IFN – if TKI resistant/ SCT not planned

§   Dasatinib as part of clinical trial if poor response to imatinib

 

Accelerated phase

§   SCT – if no match, consider haplo

Blast crisis

§   Myeloid – imatinib and SCT

§   Lymphoid – ALL type induction

 

Risk of relapse during pregnancy due to altered immunity

 

If increasing BCR-ABL transcripts post transplant, DLI is preferred to imatinib as it has curative potential



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