Overall survival for pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (A.L.L.) treated with contemporary therapy now exceeds 85%; however, approximately 20% will experience relapse. Since A.L.L. is the most common malignancy in children, relapsed
patients comprise a large proportion of the total number of children with cancer. The prognosis for long-term survival following relapse is generally poor; thus, relapsed A.L.L. is a significant contributor to cancer-related mortality in children.
Poor adherence to oral medication is a substantial problem in contemporary health care and may contribute to unexplained relapses in children with A.L.L. Therapy for pediatric A.L.L. includes a prolonged “maintenance” phase that requires daily 6- mercaptopurine (6MP), a self- or parent/caregiver-administered oral chemotherapy agent given for approximately two years. 6MP has been shown to be a critical component of the curative regimen for A.L.L.; thus, children with A.L.L. who fail to adhere to oral 6MP chemotherapy as prescribed may be at increased risk of leukemia relapse.
This study used extant questionnaire data from a cohort of children with A.L.L enrolled on a Children’s Oncology Group study (AALL03N1) to determine the prevalence of self/parent-reported non-adherence to oral 6MP during the maintenance phase of A.L.L. therapy, and to identify sociodemographic and behavioral predictors of non-adherence to oral 6MP.
Twenty-two percent of children in the cohort were non-adherent to oral chemotherapy, defined as missing more than one dose of 6MP for non-medical reasons over the 112-day observation period. The risk of non-adherence was significantly increased for those who failed to perceive the severity of the child’s illness (Odds ratio [OR] 1.89, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.00-3.55, P=0.049) or the benefits of treatment with oral 6MP (OR 1.78, 95%CI 1.07-2.94, P=0.025). Vulnerable subgroups included Hispanic ethnicity (OR 2.25, 95%CI 1.30-3.90, P=0.004) and older age (OR 1.07 per year, 95%CI 1.02-1.12, P=0.005).
Study findings suggest that even occasional reports of missed 6MP doses may herald a significant adherence problem; that patients and their parents may need ongoing reminders regarding the subclinical and asymptomatic nature of leukemia in remission;
and that frequent review with families regarding the purpose, function, and proper administration of oral 6MP is imperative.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UHAWAII/oai:scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu:10125/22058 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Landier, Wendy |
| Contributors | LeVasseur, S. |
| Publisher | University of Hawaii at Manoa |
| Source Sets | University of Hawaii at Manoa Libraries |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation, Text |
| Rights | All UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner. |
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