Ching Hon Pui

..Treatment outcome for black patients with cancer has been significantly worse than for their white counterparts. We determined whether recent improved treatment had narrowed the gap in outcome between black and white pediatric patients...

..Treatment results for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) clearly have improved over the past decade, but black children have not fared as well as white children in large national trials...

..It is the first new drug for paediatric leukaemia to be approved in more than a decade, and the only one to receive approval for paediatric use before adult use...

..We determined the long-term survival and the rates of health insurance coverage, marriage, and employment among patients who had attained at least 10 years of event-free survival...

..Our goal was to use the information to further refine therapy and advance cure rates...

..Ultimately, treatment based on biological features of leukaemic cells, host genetics, and the amount of residual disease should improve cure rates further...

..Rasburicase is a safe and effective agent in the prevention or treatment of hyperuricaemia in cancer patients...

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..01% or more at the end of the 6-week remission induction phase. Our results suggest the efficacy of early intensification of intrathecal chemotherapy and provide the basis for studies omitting cranial irradiation altogether...

..In the interim, prospective clinical trials have provided valuable clues that are further increasing the cure rate of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia...

..quot;Twinning" partnerships between a well-established individual institution or study group and a pediatric cancer unit in a developing country has proved to be the most successful strategy to date...

..Perhaps the most formidable challenge is to treat children with CNS relapse after a short initial remission or cranial irradiation...

..The ultimate challenge is to gain a clear understanding of the factors that give rise to childhood leukemia in the first place, and enable preventive strategies to be devised and implemented...

..We reviewed the outcome of older adolescents (age 15 to 18 years) treated in four consecutive Total Therapy studies to determine if recent improved treatment extended to this high-risk group...

..Prophylactic cranial irradiation has been a standard treatment in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who are at high risk for central nervous system (CNS) relapse...

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..To reassess the clinical and biologic significance of myeloid-associated antigen expression in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)...

..Finally, palliative care should be included as an essential part of cancer management to prevent and relieve the suffering and to improve the quality of life of patients and their families...

..In this article, we review current and past practice of intrathecal therapy in ALL and NHL and the risk models that aim to identify predictors of CNS relapse in NHL...

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..The next main challenge is to further increase cure rates while improving quality of life for all patients...

..The authors studied the clinical outcome of 106 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who developed a bone marrow recurrence as the first adverse event after contemporary intensified therapy...

..To the authors' knowledge, the impact of age relative to that of other prognostic factors on the outcome of patients treated in recent trials is unknown...

..Further, the systemic clearance of methotrexate, teniposide, etoposide, and cytarabine did not differ with BMI (P > .3). We conclude that BMI does not affect the outcome or toxicity of chemotherapy in this patient population with ALL...

..Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the prototype for a drug-responsive malignancy. Although cure rates exceed 80%, considerable unexplained interindividual variability exists in treatment response...

..To measure longitudinal changes in body mass and composition in survivors of childhood hematologic malignancies after allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT)...

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..Our aim was to identify the genetic basis of interindividual variability in methotrexate pharmacokinetics in children with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)...

..We conclude that acquired genetic variation in leukemia cells has a stronger influence on MTXPG accumulation than inherited genetic variation...

..Therefore, this gene is a strong candidate for inclusion in gene expression arrays specifically designed for leukemia diagnosis...

..These findings have established that TEL-AML1 ALL has significantly lower de novo purine synthesis and differential expression of genes involved in purine metabolism...

..All trials are registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov or www.cancer.gov (COG P9904: NCT00005585; COG P9905: NCT00005596; COG P9906: NCT00005603; St Jude Total XIIIB: NCI-T93-0101D; and St Jude Total XV: NCT00137111)...

..Response can now be assessed by minimal residual disease (MRD) monitoring with flow cytometry or polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We determined the relation among the results of these approaches and their prognostic value...

..We determined clinical and imaging risk factors predicting clinical joint outcomes of femoral head osteonecrosis in pediatric patients with leukemia or lymphoma...

..Prednisone strongly induces etoposide clearance, genetic polymorphisms may predict the constitutive and induced clearance of etoposide, and the relationship between genotype and phenotype differs by race...

..The association between race and outcome of treatment for childhood acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has not been adequately studied...

..019). In conclusion, systemic clearance of dexamethasone is higher in patients with anti-asparaginase antibodies. Lower exposure to both drugs was associated with an increased risk of relapse...

..10; P = .01) at the time of transplantation. We concluded that transplantation has improved over time and should be considered for all children with very high-risk leukemia, regardless of matched donor availability...

..Incorporation of the expression levels of these genes into existing strategies of risk classification could improve clinical management...

..8% of SLCO1B1's effects (1.9% of total variation) and had larger effect sizes than common NS variants. Our results show that rare variants are likely to have an important effect on pharmacogenetic phenotypes...

..We sought to determine the contribution of ARID5B single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to racial disparities in ALL susceptibility and treatment outcome...

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..The prognosis after recurrence of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is poor, and effective salvage regimens are urgently needed...

..We studied leukaemic cells, collected at diagnosis, to identify cases with ETP features and determine their clinical outcome...

..Overall, older age, lower albumin, higher lipid levels, and dexamethasone exposure were associated with osteonecrosis and may be linked by inherited genomic variation...

..Putative risk factors for osteonecrosis have included being female, white race, and older age. Our goal was to define possible genetic risk factors for osteonecrosis among children treated for newly diagnosed ALL...

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..Little is known about the incidence of secondary neoplasms after 15 to 20 years in children and adolescents who were treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia...

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..The percentage of myeloperoxidase (MPO)-positive blast cells is associated with prognosis in adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but this association is unsubstantiated in pediatric AML...

..To assess the toxicity, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of multikinase inhibitor sorafenib in combination with clofarabine and cytarabine in children with relapsed/refractory leukemia...

..We examine the effects of race on clinical outcomes among children with Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) treated with contemporary therapy at a tertiary care children's hospital...

..Outcome after recurrence of childhood acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is poor. We performed this study to identify prognostic factors for recurrence and for survival after recurrence of AML...

..Even when children receiving irradiation were excluded, the incidence was still higher in those receiving G-CSF (P =.019). In the setting of intensive antileukemic therapy, short-term use of G-CSF may increase the risk of t-ML...

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..Traumatic or bloody lumbar puncture (LP) reduces the diagnostic value of the procedure and may worsen the outcome of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Little is known about the risk factors for traumatic and bloody LP...

..403), 6.5% vs. 12.5% in blacks (P = 0.508), and 69.6% vs. 75.0% in Hispanics (P= 0.663). Our data do not support an association between common CYP3A4, NQO1 or CYP3A5 polymorphisms and the risk of t-ML in children treated for ALL...

..Febrile and allergic transfusion reactions were rare in paediatric patients transfused with leucoreduced, irradiated blood products, whether premedication was used or not...

..One of the adverse effects of glucocorticoids is hypertension. Our aim was to define the frequency of and clinical and genetic risk factors for steroid-induced hypertension...

..9% versus 78% +/- 3.1% (P = .08). These data suggest that CD20 expression is not associated with inferior outcome in pediatric patients treated with contemporary regimens...

..We propose to further investigate the efficacy of KIR-mismatched NK cells in a phase II trial as consolidation therapy to decrease relapse without increasing mortality in children with AML...

..Therefore, the clinical usefulness of MR imaging as a screening tool for AVNB in this set of patients remains uncertain...

..Intravenous immunoglobulin was administered and the patient's aplastic anemia resolved completely within 3 weeks. This highlights the importance of alertness to the possibility of parvovirus infection in children with cancer...

..86, respectively) and were associated with methotrexate accumulation and gene expression pattern in leukemic lymphoblasts. We conclude that germline variants affect susceptibility to, and characteristics of, specific ALL subtypes...

..These data suggest that with contemporary treatment, patients with the t(1;19) and TCF3/PBX1 fusion have a favorable overall outcome but increased risk of CNS relapse...

..They also suggest that dose intensification of etoposide and addition of 2-CDA may also offer an advantage. This study underscores the dependence of the prognostic impact of cytogenetic features on the efficacy of treatment...

..We determined the incidence, presentation, stage, and outcome of children with Burkitt lymphoma presenting with intussusception...

..Immune function 1 year after transplantation and the incidences and spectra of late sequelae were similar for both groups during a median of 3.5 years (range, 1.5 to 7.2 years) of follow-up...

..026). The genotype-phenotype associations were similar whether analyses were adjusted by self-reported race or ancestry-informative genetic markers. Germ-line polymorphisms are significant determinants of toxicity of antileukemic therapy...

..Therefore, we measured the in vivo antileukemic effects of MTX and identified genes whose expression differed significantly in patients with a good versus poor response to MTX...

..Recent genomewide analyses have identified a high frequency of DNA copy-number abnormalities in ALL, but the prognostic implications of these abnormalities have not been defined...

..The authors evaluated the response rate, toxicity, and pharmacokinetics of topotecan given before standard induction therapy for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in first relapse...

..Allogeneic transplantation during remission offers the best chance of cure; in the absence of remission, transplantation offers no advantage over chemotherapy alone. (Blood. 2001;97:3727-3732)..

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..POND4kids.org), which allows collection, analysis, and sharing of data...

..We also suggest that hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is often not required for cure of these patients...

..To prospectively determine the prognostic significance of the TEL-AML1 fusion in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)...

..Genome-wide interrogation of leukemic cell genetic abnormalities and germline genetic variations promise to identify new molecular targets for therapy...

..Findings further indicate that the FS-A can be used to measure change over time (t=2.55, P<0.01). In summary, the FS-A has moderate to strong reliability and impressive validity coefficients for a new research instrument...

..1) that rearranged BCL6 and placed it adjacent to MYC. We speculate that this genetic lesion occurred as a result of chromosomal instability due to the underlying disease...

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..cure4kids.org. Identifying preventable causes of abandonment of therapy and documenting the nutritional status of patients treated at MISPHO centers are areas of active research...

..We therefore sought to determine if detection of relapse by blood counts before the onset of symptoms provided any clinical benefit...

..Therefore, it should be suspected when stridor is present, and clinicians should consider visualization of the airway to establish the cause of upper airway compromise in infants receiving vincristine...

..The number of long-term survivors of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is increasing; however, few studies have addressed their long-term pulmonary function...

..With increased cure rates, pediatric oncology protocols increasingly seek to document the impact of treatment on patients' disease, symptoms, and functional capacity...

..In addition, the authors determined whether subdivision of the hypodiploid category served a prognostic purpose for these patients...