Enrichment of atypical hyperdiploidy and IKZF1 deletions detected by SNP-microarray in high-risk Australian AIEOP-BFM B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia cohort.

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is the most common childhood malignancy with the majority of patients being classified as B-cell lineage (B-ALL). The sub-classification of B-ALL is based on genomic architecture. Recent studies have demonstrated the capability of SNP-microarrays to detect genomic changes in B-ALL which cannot be observed by conventional cytogenetic methods.

Treatment delay and the risk of relapse in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Delays or interruptions in chemotherapy due to toxicity such as neutropenia or severe infections are common in the treatment of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Based on the reports of worse outcomes in children with poorer compliance with therapy, there has been concern that toxicity-induced therapy interruptions could also compromise treatment outcome. In a retrospective study of treatment delays in our hospital between 2003 and 2013, the case notes of 141 patients were reviewed.

Cancer in Australian Aboriginal children: room for improvement.

Aim: The study aims to analyse clinical data and outcome in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children with cancer.

Methods: This is a retrospective case-note review of biological features, treatment outcome and survival in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children with a malignancy who were treated at the Women's and Children's Hospital, a tertiary referral hospital, from January 1997 through March 2011. Two separate analyses were performed: firstly, for each Aboriginal patient comparisons were made with two age, sex and diagnosis-matched control patients; then secondly, results for the Aboriginal group of patients were compared with the whole non-Aboriginal group of patients.