Acute lymphoblastic leukemia in elderly patients: a single institution's experience.
OBJECTIVE
We investigated the clinical characteristics and prognosis of elderly patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).


METHODS
We reviewed the clinical data, laboratory findings, bone marrow findings, and cytogenetic analysis of elderly patients (≥ 60 years) with ALL, and data of an additional 101 younger adult patients (< 60 years) with ALL were reviewed for comparison.


RESULTS
Twenty-six elderly patients (≥ 60 years) and 101 younger adult patients (< 60 years) with ALL were retrospectively enrolled. The median follow-up duration was 6.0 months (range, 0.4 to 113.2) in the elderly patients and 21.7 months (range, 1.0 to 122.7) in the adult patients. In total, 34.6% (9 patients) of the elderly patients and 24.8% (25 patients) of the adult patients had Philadelphia chromosome positive ALL. The overall complete remission (CR) rate was much higher in the younger than in the elderly patients (94.1% vs. 57.7%, p < 0.001). The median overall survival (OS) of the younger patients (< 60 years) was 26.3 months, whereas that of the elderly patients (≥ 60 years) was 10.3 months (p = 0.003). In the elderly patients with ALL, T cell lineage and the presence of lymphadenopathy were significant prognostic factors for OS in a univariate analysis (p = 0.033 and 0.041, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
The outcomes of Korean elderly patients with ALL were poor, and the shorter OS was mainly due to the low CR rate. T-cell lineage and the presence of lymphadenopathy were significant prognostic factors in Korean elderly patients with ALL.
Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
Dong-Yeop
DY
Shin
Inho
I
Kim
Ki-Hwan
KH
Kim
Younak
Y
Choi
Seung Hoon
SH
Beom
Yaewon
Y
Yang
Yoojoo
Y
Lim
Eunyoung
E
Lee
June Koo
JK
Lee
Ji Yeon
JY
Kim
Hyun Kyung
HK
Kim
Sung-Soo
SS
Yoon
Dong Soon
DS
Lee
Seonyang
S
Park
Byoung-Kook
BK
Kim
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001856:Bone Marrow Examination; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010677:Philadelphia Chromosome; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000401:mortality; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012074:Remission Induction; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult