Infections During Induction Therapy of Protocol CCLG-2008 in Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A Single-center Experience with 256 Cases in China

BACKGROUND: Infections remain a major cause of therapy-associated morbidity and mortality in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the medical charts of 256 children treated for ALL under the CCLG-2008 protocol in Beijing Children's Hospital. RESULTS: There were 65 infectious complications in 50 patients during vincristine, daunorubicin, L-asparaginase and dexamethasone induction therapy, including microbiologically documented infections (n = 12; 18.5%), clinically documented infections (n = 23; 35.3%) and fever of unknown origin (n = 30; 46.2%). Neutropenia was present in 83.1% of the infectious episodes. In all, most infections occurred around the 15(th) day of induction treatment (n = 28), and no patients died of infection-associated complications. CONCLUSIONS: The infections in this study was independent of treatment response, minimal residual diseases at the end of induction therapy, gender, immunophenotype, infection at first visit, risk stratification at diagnosis, unfavorable karyotypes at diagnosis and morphologic type. The infection rate of CCLG-2008 induction therapy is low, and the outcome of patients is favorable.