Objectives: To describe the clinical characteristics and the induction outcome of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in adulthood in Palestine.

Methods: A Retrospective single-center study was conducted at An-Najah National University Hospital (NNUH) between January 2014 and December 2018. The files and electronic records of ALL patients were reviewed. All patients at least 15 years or older who were confirmed to have ALL by flow cytometry and started induction chemotherapy at NNUH were included. Descriptive statistics were used.

Results: 43 patients were included; the median age at diagnosis was 23 years, with a male to female ratio of 2.3:1. Most of the patients came from Gaza (37%), Hebron (25.5%), and Nablus (18.6%). The main complaints at presentation were fatigue (60.4%), fever (51.1%), bone pain (41.8%), night sweat (39.5%), anorexia (37.2%), and weight loss (37.2%). Three patients had CNS leukemia, which was 6.9%. The median counts of white blood cells (WBC), hemoglobin (Hb), and platelet counts were 14.4 × 10⁹/L, 9.6 g/dL, and 32 × 10⁹/L respectively. According to flow cytometry reports, B-ALL was the most common subtype, accounting for 60.5%. After one cycle of induction chemotherapy, (83.7%) showed complete remission (CR), (13.9%) did not, and one patient (2.3%) died during the induction period.

Conclusions: The characteristics of ALL patients in Palestine are comparable to published data elsewhere. B-ALL was the most common subtype. The outcome of the first cycle of induction chemotherapy is similar to the published data for both B-ALL and T-ALL subtypes.

Title

International Journal of Blood Research and Disorders

Publisher

ClinMed International Library

Publisher Country

United States of America

Indexing

Thomson Reuters

Impact Factor

2.1

Publication Type

Online only

Volume

10

Year

2023

Pages

5