Augmented Berlin-Frankfurt-Munster versus GRAALL-2003 in young adults with Philadelphia-negative, B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A single-center experience

Abstract

Background Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a heterogeneous group of diseases characterized by clonal proliferation of lymphoblasts. Improvement in the outcome of ALL in adolescents and young adult (AYA) patients remains one of the challenging problems in ALL treatment. Aim This study was conducted to compare the outcome of polychemotherapy regimens, augmented Berlin-Frankfurt-Munster (ABFM) regimen and GRAALL-2003, in Philadelphia-negative, B-cell ALL in AYA patients. Patients and methods A single-center retrospective study was performed on AYA patients with Philadelphia-negative, B-cell ALL who were diagnosed between 2013 and 2019. Results A total of 37 patients were included (27 males and 10 females) with a mean age of 22.3 years. Complete remission (CR) rate in the ABFM group was 94.1 versus 75% in the GRALL-2003 group (P=0.1). There was no statistically significant difference regarding relapse rate between both regimens (P=0.2). Regarding toxicities, there was no statistically significant difference between the two regimens apart from ICU admission rate, which was statistically significantly higher in the GRAALL-2003 group compared with the ABFM group (P=0.048); however, it had no influence on the overall survival. Conclusion The outcome of both polychemotherapy regimens, ABFM and GRAALL-2003, was comparable regarding CR rate, relapse rate, overall survival, and toxicity profile apart from a noticeable increased rate of ICU admission in GRAALL-2003 regimen, which makes ABFM regimen the more feasible option in treatment.