Survival Odds Better for ALL Patients at Pediatric Cancer Centers

A graduate of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Kenneth D. Nahum has worked with patients with blood disorders and cancer for more than three decades. Kenneth D. Nahum serves as the hematologist and oncologist at Regional Cancer Care Associates in New Jersey and belongs to such organizations as the American Society of Hematology (ASH), an organization dedicated to the treatment and prevention of blood disorders.

Recently, ASH published an article about leukemia treatment in its journal Blood Advances. The study, which focused on young adults and adolescents with acute leukemia, found that these patients may have a better chance of surviving when they are treated at a pediatric cancer center instead of an adult center.

To complete this study, researchers reviewed data from the California Cancer Registry that had been gathered between 2004 and 2014 and identified over 1,400 acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) patients between the ages of 15 and 39. Once they had a list of patients, researchers marked whether each patient’s center of care was at an adult or pediatric facility and whether said facility was affiliated with the National Cancer Institute (NCI). They then compared overall survival statistics based on where patients were treated.

According to their results, about 32 percent of all young adult and adolescent patients with ALL received care at a pediatric facility. Among those, 89 percent of patients received care at an NCI-designated center. Meanwhile, 998 patients, or about 67 percent, received care at an adult facility, but only 28 percent of these patients got care from an NCI-designated center. When looking at survival rates, researchers found that patients treated in a pediatric setting or at an NCI-designated center had a significantly higher rate of survival compared to those treated at an adult or non-NCI-designated center.