The seasonality in the diagnosis of acute leukemia: A single center data from Turkey

Objectives: The seasonality in the diagnosis of acute leukemias (ALs) has been conceived ever since and the results have been confounding between summer and winter peaks since those times. To our knowledge, the seasonality in the diagnosis ALs has not been explored in our region and we aimed to investigate for a seasonal accumulation in the diagnosis of AL patients. Materials and Methods: A hundred and sixty-two patients who were diagnosed with either acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) between November 2012 and October 2017 were included in the study. The data regarding the gender, age, type of leukemia and the time of admission were noted from files of the patients. Results: The median age of the patients was 51.5 years (range, 17-85) with 64 (39.5%) female, 98 (60.5%) male. Most of AL patients were diagnosed in August (21,13%) and the least in June with 6 (3.7%) patients. According to the seasons; 39 (24.1%) patients were diagnosed in winter, 40 (24.7%) patients in spring, 40 (24.7%) patients in summer and 43 (26.5%) patients in autumn (P>0.05). Conclusion: We could not determine any seasonality in the diagnosis of ALs, both AML and ALL, in our study.