Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia occurring as second malignancy: report of the GIMEMA Archive of Adult Acute Leukaemia |
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| Authors: | Livio Pagano,Alessandro Pulsoni,Maria Elena Tosti,Luciana Annino,Alfonso Mele,rea Camera,Bruno Martino,Cesare Guglielmi,Raffaella Cerri,Eros Di Bona,Rosangela Invernizzi,Carlo Castagnola,Roberto Bassan,Luca Mele,Giuseppe Todeschini,Giuseppe Leone,& Franco Mandellifor the GIMEMA Group |
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| Affiliation: | Department of Haematology, Catholic University, Largo Francesco Vito, I-00168 Roma, Italy. |
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| Abstract: | Between July 1992 and June 1996, 901 new cases of adult acute lymphoblastic leukaemia were recorded in the GIMEMA Archive of Adult Acute Leukaemia; 21 of them (2.3%) had a previous primary malignancy (PM). We found that secondary acute lymphoblastic leukaemia cases (sALL) presented with older age, a high incidence of pre-pre-B immunophenotype and a significantly higher prevalence of cancer among relatives compared to de novo ALL. The leukaemogenic activity of the cytotoxic drugs employed for the treatment of PM may have played a potential role in only a proportion of patients, opening the possibility that some sALL patients may have developed two or more malignancies due to individual predisposing factors. |
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| Keywords: | secondary acute lymphoblastic leukaemia primary malignancy epidemiology |
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