Real-World Experience of Treating Pediatric Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: Retrospective Study from a Cancer Center in Southern India

Introduction Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is rare in children and constitutes 2% of all leukemia. We present our institute experience in treating pediatric CML for 20 years. Objectives There is a paucity of data on pediatric CML from India, hence we would like to present treatment responses and survival rates in our pediatric population treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors at our center. Materials and Methods Patients aged less than 18 years, diagnosed with CML from 2000 to 2019, and treated with imatinib were analyzed retrospectively considering demographic features, treatment characteristics, and survival outcomes. Descriptive analysis was done for the baseline characteristics. Event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method and the factors were compared using the log-rank test. Results During the study period, 95 patients were diagnosed with CML of which 54 (56.8%) were males. The most common stage at presentation was the chronic phase (CP) with 84 (88.4%) patients followed by accelerated phase (AP) and blast crisis (BC) with 6 (6.3%) and 5 (5.3%) patients respectively. The median duration of follow-up for all patients was 98 months. EFS and OS at 8 years for patients with CML-CP were 43.1% and 80.4% respectively. Complete hematological response, complete cytogenetic response, and major molecular response was documented in 91 (95.7%), 73 (76.8%), and 63 (66.3%) patients respectively. Conclusion Outcomes in pediatric CML are comparable to that of adults. Imatinib is well tolerated in children.