Five decades of low intensity and low survival: adapting intensified regimens to cure pediatric Burkitt lymphoma in Africa.

ABSTRACT: Long-term cure of childhood Burkitt lymphoma (BL) in sub-Saharan Africa after treatment with single-agent cyclophosphamide has been documented for more than half of a century. Contemporary cure rates for the highest-risk patients with BL in high-income countries exceed 90% using intensive multiagent chemotherapy. By contrast, the majority of African children with BL still die. Data spanning 5 decades in Africa have repeatedly shown that the children most likely to achieve cure with limited cyclophosphamide regimens are those with lower-stage disease isolated to the jaw. Attempts to intensify the cyclophosphamide monotherapy backbone with the addition of vincristine, low-dose methotrexate, prednisone, doxorubicin, and/or low-dose cytarabine have not yielded significant improvement. High-dos

SUBMITTER: Ozuah NW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7448606 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature