title: Survival outcome of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia in India: a resource-limited perspective of more than 40 years.
abstract: The outcome of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia in India has been inferior to more than 80% cure rates in developed nations. This study was done to analyze the outcome of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in India over 4 decades. There has been a gradual improvement in survival rates of up to >70% in some centers along with a decline in relapse and mortality. However, these results cannot be generalized to the entire nation. There is a crying need to address treatment abandonment, take quality improvement, educational and financial initiatives; cooperative research into risk factors and disease biology, and the implementation of risk stratification along with the assessment of response to therapy.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Hematology Oncology, Stollery Children Hospital, University of Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Ketan Prasad
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Kulkarni
authors.forename: Ramandeep Singh
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Arora
authors.forename: Ram Kumar
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Marwaha
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003906:Developing Countries / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D011203:Poverty / Q000191:economics*; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000191:economics* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D011379:Prognosis; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors