Long-term outcome of childhood acute myeloid leukemia: A 10-year retrospective cohort study

Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) in children is a serious disease. With a proper treatment, a long-term survival rate above 50% is typical. Before 2010, all the AML patients died in our hospital, and abandonment rate was more than 50%. The aims of this study are to explore the long-term outcome of newly childhood acute myeloid patients treated at Hue Central Hospital from 2010 to 2019.A retrospective study was conducted on 98 children with AML who admitted Hue Central Hospital from January 2010 to December 2019. The diagnosis was confirmed by morphological FAB criteria, cytochemistry and immunophenotype. Patients were treated with using modified AML 7-3 Regimen. Social supports were provided to patients/families. A total of 98 children with AML were analyzed with mean age of 5.6 years ranging from 3 months to 15 years. The male to female ratio was 1.8:1. The overall complete remission rate after induction were 82.6%). Patients accounted for 46 (46.9%) had relapses which occurred in during chemotherapy n=27 (27,6%), after finishing chemotherapy n=19(19,4%). Overall survival at 3 years were 23.2%. The event-free survival at 3 years were 20.2%. Abandonment cases were 4 (4.1%). During the period study, abandonment has been reduced successfully with holistic strategies such as financial support, managing family group, providing education, early follow-up of patients who missed appointments and free accommodation near hospital for patients/families. However, with a high rate patient achieved complete remission after induction phase (82.6%), but the overal survival and event-free survival at 3 years were still low in my hospital (23.2 % and 20.2% respectively). It reflected that it was very difficult to treat successfully AML in low- and middle-income countries. We are considering the way how to improve the quality treatment for childhood acute myeloid leukemia in my hospital.