Tamer Othman, MD @tamerothman10 of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center @HarborUCLA answers common questions on the characteristics and trends in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia. There is still a survival benefit for patients who are referred, even if they do not undergo transplant, because of therapy and clinical trials.
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It is difficult to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in a socioeconomic distressed community without ready access to a center for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT), and clinical trials. Sparse data concerning the outcomes of these patients.
This retrospective study included 90 consecutive ALL patients, who presented between 2003 and 2018 to Harbor-UCLA. The primary target was overall survival (OS), while the secondary targets included leukemia-free survival, therapy toxicity, HCT referral, and frequency of positive HCT.