Originally published August 9 2005
Stem cell transplants work best for cancer in children
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The worst cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common leukemia in children, respond better to a stem cell transplant than to chemotherapy, a new study finds.
Children with very-high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in a first complete remission fared better if they received stem cell transplants from related donors than if they continued on chemotherapy, reported investigators in Europe and South America.
Children who were assigned to receive hematopoietic stem cell transplants based on the availability of a relative with close HLA-type matching had a five-year disease-free-survival rate of 57%, compared with 41% of children assigned to chemotherapy.
There was also a small but significant difference in overall survival between the stem cell and chemotherapy groups, with 56.4% of kids who received allogeneic transplants living for at least five more years, compared with 50.1% of kids who received chemotherapy, reported Adrianna Balduzzi, M.D, of the Universita' degli Studi di Milano Bicocca here.
In addition, the benefit of stem-cell transplantation became stronger as the patient risk-profile worsened, wrote Dr. Balduzzi and colleagues from centers in six European countries and Argentina.
"This international study has shown that availability of a compatible related donor for children with very-high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia in first complete remission improves disease-free survival," the authors wrote.
Although definitions vary, high-risk ALL is defined by certain criteria associated with poor prognosis, including high white blood cell counts, T immunophenotype, specific clonal abnormalities, or by treatment resistance.
"The advantage of related-donor hemopoietic-cell transplantation over chemotherapy became more apparent with every successive year of follow up, suggesting greater protection against late relapses in children who survived the early toxic effects of treatment.
No significant heterogeneity of treatment effect was detected among study groups (p=0.12)," the authors noted.
In addition, overall survival was slightly better in the transplant group, with 56.4% of the children in this cohort surviving at least five years, compared with 50.1% if children in the chemotherapy group (p=0.12).
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