Abstract
Growing insight into prognosis of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) survival has led to improved outcome over time and could be further enhanced through investigation using a large number of patients. To characterize the extent of the association of pediatric AML survival with its identified prognostic factors, we analyzed the United States population-based Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) large dataset of 3442 pediatric AML patients diagnosed and followed between 1973 and 2011 using a Cox proportional hazards model stratified by year of diagnosis. Patients diagnosed between 10 and 19 years of age were at a higher risk of death compared to those diagnosed before age 10 (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR): 1.30, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.17-1.44). African Americans (1.27, 1.09-1.48) and Hispanics (1.15, 1.00-1.32) had an elevated risk of mortality than Caucasians. Compared to the subtype acute promyelocytic leukemia, AML with minimal differentiation (2.44, 1.78-3.35); acute erythroid leukemia (2.34, 1.60-3.40); AML without maturation (1.87, 1.35-2.59); and most other AML subtypes had a higher risk of mortality, whereas AML with inv(16) had a substantially lower risk. Age at diagnosis, race-ethnicity, AML subtype, county level poverty and geographic region appeared as significant prognostic factors of pediatric AML survival in the US. Contrary to previous findings, the subtypes of AML with t(9;11)(p22;q23)MLLT3-MLL, AML without maturation and acute myelomonocytic leukemia emerged to be indicative of poor outcome.