title: Increased risk for invasive pneumococcal diseases in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
abstract: Asplenia and other conditions of immunodeficiency are established risk factors for invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). There are no current data available on the risk of IPD in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), the most common type of childhood malignancy. This study combined data from a nation-wide surveillance for IPD and the German childhood cancer registry, and showed that children with ALL carry a more than 10-fold higher risk for IPD than the general paediatric population. As a substantial proportion of IPD occurs during maintenance chemotherapy, children with ALL may represent candidates for the evaluation of prophylactic interventions including vaccination.
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Paediatric Oncology, Haematology and Clinical Immunology, University Clinic of Düsseldorf, Heinrich-Heine-University, Moorenstrasse 5, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. meisel@med.uni-duesseldorf.de
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Meisel
authors.forename: André Michael
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Toschke
authors.forename: Cora
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Heiligensetzer
authors.forename: Dagmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dilloo
authors.forename: Hans-Jürgen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Laws
authors.forename: Rüdiger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: von Kries
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D016470:Bacteremia; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011008:Pneumococcal Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D012306:Risk; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae; D014611:Vaccination