Early deaths in pediatric acute leukemia: a population-based study.

The purpose was to describe the incidence and risk factors associated with early deaths (≤ 42 days from diagnosis) among children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in Ontario, Canada. The data source for this population-based, retrospective cohort study was the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario Networked Information System (POGONIS). Patients with acute leukemia aged ≤ 18 years diagnosed between 1990 and 2010 were included. The study population consisted of 1954 children with ALL and 403 with AML. The early death rate was 40/2357 (1.7%), with 1.1% of patients with ALL and 4.7% of patients with AML dying early. Among all 442 deaths recorded, 9.0% occurred early. Twelve/40 (30.0%) early deaths were attributed to infection. Factors associated with early deaths were AML (p < 0.0001) and age ≥ 10 years at diagnosis (p = 0.038). Future interventions to improve survival may consider focusing on the early treatment period and may target AML and older patients.