Clinical characteristics and outcomes of adults with Philadelphia chromosome positive and/or bcr-abl positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a single center study from China.

The study reviewed 389 adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 110 patients (28.3%) were diagnosed as Philadelphia chromosome positive (Ph-positive) and/or bcr-abl positive ALL. The special group had the same clinical characteristics as other studies, except for relatively young age and high incidence of both P190 and P210 fusion proteins expression. The complete remission (CR) rate in conventional chemotherapy (CT) group and in chemotherapy combined with imatinib (ICT) group was 84.7% and 96.0%, respectively. The 2-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were 0 and 23.6 +/- 6.9%, respectively in CT group; the 2-year DFS and OS were 22.1 +/- 8.8% and 41.6 +/- 10.0%, respectively in ICT group; and in allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) group, the 2-year DFS and OS were 48.2 +/- 13.9% and 53.1 +/- 12.7%, respectively. The results of the study indicated that introducing imatinib into treatment of patients with Ph-positive ALL could improve CR rate and survival, especially as early as possible, and allogenic SCT was still the first choice for these patients if they had suitable donors.