Journal of Blood Medicine (Dec 2019)
Myeloid Leukemias: A Glance at Middle Eastern Centers
Abstract
Safaa AA Khaled,1,2 Ola Nabih,3 Nashwa M Abdel Aziz,4 Dalia G Mahran5 1Department of Internal Medicine, Clinical Hematology Unit, Assiut University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt; 2Unit of Bone Marrow Transplantation, South Egypt Cancer Institute, Assiut, Egypt; 3Department of Clinical Oncology, Assiut University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt; 4Department of Medical Oncology, South Egypt Cancer Institute, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt; 5Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, EgyptCorrespondence: Safaa AA KhaledDepartment of Internal Medicine, Clinical Hematology Unit, Assiut University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, EgyptTel +20 8 8241 3826Email [email protected] and objectives: Myeloid leukemias (MLs) are clonal stem cell disorders affecting myeloid lineage cells. Advances in cytogenetic and molecular studies partially disclosed the mystery about risk factors and pathophysiology of MLs. Regarding incidence, risk factors, response to treatment, and overall survival of patients, research showed differences among different countries. However, the Western registry data are the basis for the documented description of MLs in medical textbooks. This research aimed to study MLs in Middle Eastern health centers. Egypt has the highest population in the Middle East; furthermore, 96.6% of the population is native Egyptians; accordingly the study focused on Egypt.Patients and methods: Data of 468 patients with MLs were collected from hospital records at two big tertiary health centers. They were grouped into group 1 (chronic myeloid leukemia, CML) and group 2 (acute myeloid leukemia, AML); the latter was subgrouped into 2a (primary AML) and 2b (secondary AML).Results and conclusions: The median age of patients was 43 years; males predominate in group 2a and females in groups 1 and 2b. 37.2% of group 1 patients were treated with Gleevec. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation was planned for only 5% of group 2 and 18% relapsed. Of groups 1 and 2 patients, 25% and 12%, respectively, stopped follow up, and 15% and 35% died. ORR and overall survival were 53%, 27% and 7%, 0.4% for groups 1 and 2, respectively. Conclusively, this study showed a young age of ML patients, with female predominance in CML, and poor outcome. This reflected racial, ethnic and risk factor differences in incidence of MLs.Keywords: myeloid leukemias, glance, Middle East, centers
