Faculty Collaboration Database

Impact of Intrathecal Triple Therapy Versus Intrathecal Methotrexate on Disease-Free Survival for High-Risk B-Lymphoblastic Leukemia: Children's Oncology Group Study AALL1131. J Clin Oncol 2020 Aug 10;38(23):2628-2638

Date

06/05/2020

Pubmed ID

32496902

Pubmed Central ID

PMC7402996

DOI

10.1200/JCO.19.02892

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85089203581 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   42 Citations

Abstract

PURPOSE: The high-risk stratum of Children's Oncology Group Study AALL1131 was designed to test the hypothesis that postinduction CNS prophylaxis with intrathecal triple therapy (ITT) including methotrexate, hydrocortisone, and cytarabine would improve the postinduction 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) compared with intrathecal methotrexate (IT MTX), when given on a modified augmented Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster backbone.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Children with newly diagnosed National Cancer Institute (NCI) high-risk B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (HR B-ALL) or NCI standard-risk B-ALL with defined minimal residual disease thresholds during induction were randomly assigned to receive postinduction IT MTX or ITT. Patients with CNS3-status disease were not eligible. Postinduction IT therapy was given for a total of 21 to 26 doses. Neurocognitive assessments were performed during therapy and during 1 year off therapy.

RESULTS: Random assignment was closed to accrual in March 2018 after a futility boundary had been crossed, concluding that ITT could not be shown to be superior to IT MTX. The 5-year postinduction DFS and overall survival rates (± SE) of children randomly assigned to IT MTX versus ITT were 93.2% ± 2.1% v 90.6% ± 2.3% (P = .85), and 96.3% ± 1.5% v 96.7% ± 1.4% (P = .77), respectively. There were no differences in the cumulative incidence of isolated bone marrow relapse, isolated CNS relapse, or combined bone marrow and CNS relapse rates, or in toxicities observed for patients receiving IT MTX compared with ITT. There were no significant differences in neurocognitive outcomes for patients receiving IT MTX compared with ITT.

CONCLUSION: Postinduction CNS prophylaxis with ITT did not improve 5-year DFS for children with HR B-ALL. The standard of care for CNS prophylaxis for children with B-ALL and no overt CNS involvement remains IT MTX.

Author List

Salzer WL, Burke MJ, Devidas M, Dai Y, Hardy KK, Kairalla JA, Gore L, Hilden JM, Larsen E, Rabin KR, Zweidler-McKay PA, Borowitz MJ, Wood B, Heerema NA, Carroll AJ, Winick N, Carroll WL, Raetz EA, Loh ML, Hunger SP

Author

Michael James Burke MD Professor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols
Child
Cytarabine
Dexamethasone
Female
Humans
Hydrocortisone
Injections, Spinal
Male
Methotrexate
Nervous System Neoplasms
Precursor B-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma
Prednisone