title: Clinical aspects of infant leukemia--experiences of a single institution of Japan: high level of serum immunoglobulin M in infant leukemia.
abstract: The prognosis and clinical and biological characteristics of infant leukemia differ from those of leukemia in children 1 year or older. We reviewed the charts of patients younger than 1 year in whom leukemia was diagnosed from January 1981 through December 2003 at our institution. Fourteen infants had leukemia, 6 had acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and 8 had acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The age of patients at diagnosis ranged from 2 to 11 months. Five of 8 AML patients presented with cutaneous manifestations, such as erythema and nodules, at diagnosis. Central nervous system (CNS) involvement was seen in 1 AML patient at diagnosis. Hyperleukocytosis of more than 50 x 10(9)/L was seen in 4 of 6 ALL patients and in 4 of 8 AML patients at diagnosis. All ALL patients showed a morphological diagnosis of L1 using the French-America-British classification system. For patients with AML, the morphological diagnoses were M0 for 1 patient, M2 for 1 patient, M4 for 2 patients (1 with eosinophilia), M5b for 2 patients, and M7 for 2 patients. One patient showing M7 morphology had Down syndrome. Surface markers were examined in 5 of 6 ALL patients and all AML patients. Five ALL patients showed a B-cell precursor immunophenotype. Two of 5 patients with ALL had CD10-positive leukemic cells and 3 of 5 patients with ALL had CD10-negative leukemic cells. All AML patients were positive for CD13 or CD33 or both. Three of 5 patients with ALL showed abnormal chromosomes related to 11q. Six of 7 patients with AML showed abnormal karyotypes. MLL gene rearrangements were seen in 3 (2 ALL, 1 AML) of 5 (2 ALL, 3 AML) patients. Serum immunoglobulin M levels were increased in 9 of 14 patients. Complete remission (CR) was achieved in all infants with ALL. Three patients relapsed and then died of the original disease. One of these 3 patients died after cord blood transplantation. Three ALL patients are alive without leukemia. CR was achieved in 6 of 8 AML patients. Four of 6 patients are alive without leukemia. Infant leukemia patients in our institution had some special features. CNS involvement at diagnosis was seen in only 1 patient and serum IgM levels were higher than those in children whose leukemia was diagnosed at 1 to 10 years of age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan. maeda@nms.ac.jp
authors.forename: Miho
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.forename: Yoshitaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fukunaga
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Asano
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Migita
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ueda
authors.forename: Hisamitsu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hamada
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hayakawa
authors.forename: Hidehiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Narazaki
authors.forename: Kiyohiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kaizu
mesh_terms: D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D005260:Female; D011495:Histone-Lysine N-Methyltransferase; D006801:Humans; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000097:blood*; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D007223:Infant; D007564:Japan; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D051788:Myeloid-Lymphoid Leukemia Protein / Q000235:genetics; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D007075:Immunoglobulin M; C497422:KMT2A protein, human; D051788:Myeloid-Lymphoid Leukemia Protein; D011495:Histone-Lysine N-Methyltransferase