title: A seven-years experience in treatment of childhood ALL in Bulgaria.
abstract: After analyzing nonsatisfactory therapeutic results in the 1970s and early 1980s, the 81-01 treatment protocol of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute was initiated in 1987 in the Children's Oncohaematology Clinic in Sofia, Bulgaria. Two hundred thirty patients were enrolled with a period of observation of a minimum of 14 and a maximum of 97 months; the median age was 5.83 +/- 3.6 years. According to the original criteria, standard risk (SR) patients were 38.26% and high-risk (HR) patients 61.74%. The probability for event-free survival at the seventh year estimated with the Kaplan-Meier method for the total group was 0.67 +/- 0.04 (+/- SE) and 0.55 +/- 0.09 and 0.81 +/- 0.06 for HR and SR, respectively (P < .001). Improvement of therapeutic results in terms of remission failures, early deaths, patients lost to follow-up, and rate of relapses is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Children's Oncohaematology Clinic, University Hospital "Queen Johanna," Sofia, Bulgaria.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Konstantinov
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bobev
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Michailov
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sarbinova
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kalev
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Spassov
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jordanova
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Koleva
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mendizova
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kirov
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002031:Bulgaria; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000628:therapy*; D012008:Recurrence; D012074:Remission Induction