title: The absence of peripheral blood blasts at diagnosis may predict CNS involvement or CNS relapse in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients.
abstract: A high tumor burden at the time of diagnosis of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia has an unfavorable outcome. Peripheral white blood cell count is commonly used to reflect the leukemic burden and is used as one of the most important factors during determination of the risk-based treatment. However, peripheral blood blast count may not always reflect the tumor burden if leukocytes are not in blast nature. In the present study, we observed no central nervous system involvement at the time of diagnosis in patients with no peripheral blood blasts at the beginning, and furthermore, none of the patients with no peripheral blasts at the diagnosis had central nervous system relapse.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Hematology, Department of Pediatrics, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sule
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Unal
authors.forename: A Murat
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Tuncer
authors.forename: Mualla
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cetin
authors.forename: Sevgi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yetgin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001752:Blast Crisis / Q000473:pathology*; D016543:Central Nervous System Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012008:Recurrence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate