Objective:

To describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with acute myeloid leukemia; and to evaluate the mortality and survival of children treated with the LMA-INC 2004 protocol (modified from BFM 93) in a pediatric oncology clinic of the Colombian National Cancer Institute (Instituto Nacional de Cancerología de Colombia) between May 2004 and December 2014.

Patients and methods:

Retrospective descriptive observational study of a cohort with survival analysis of patients aged under 18 years, with a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia, who were treated with intensive chemotherapy without maintenance or transplantation. The survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method.

Results:

We analyzed 41 patients diagnosed with myeloid leukemia, except acute myeloid leukemia type M3, who were, treated with the LMA-INC 2004 protocol. Complete remission was achieved in 75.6% of patients. The annual relapse rate was 27.4%; and the death rate 20.3%. Cumulative overall survival at 2 and 5 years was 60% and 53.5% respectively, with an average follow-up of 4.3 years (3.2 - 5.2 years); and the 5-year relapse-free survival was 42%, with an average follow-up time of 3.5 years (3.3 - 4.6 years).

Conclusion:

The results showed a 30% improvement in the survival of patients with acute myeloid leukemia, attributed to a more intense treatment that included the administration of high doses of cytarabine and mitoxantrone in consolidation and intensification; which implies improvement in supportive care.

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