Cure rates for adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in developing countries are significantly lower because of problems unique to these countries. We assessed some of the problems in adult ALL patients (>12 years of age) in a tertiary care hospital of northwest India with modified BFM regimen. The diagnosis of ALL was made according to FAB criteria. The protocol consisted of Phase I & II induction, consolidation, reinduction and maintenance phases. CNS prophylaxis was administered with 24 Gy radiation and intrathecal methotrexate. One hundred and eighteen patients (72.9% males), aged 12 – 68 years (median 23 years) were treated from January 1997 till December 2003. Follow-up of patients was done till December 2005. Complete remission (CR) was achieved in 85.6% patients after induction therapy and 40% patient relapsed. Most patients (23.7%) relapsed during the maintenance phase or after completion of chemotherapy. At least 15% of patients (15/101) after successful induction abandoned the treatment because of financial constraints, prolonged travel time to treatment facility and switching over to alternative medicines. Fatal infectious complications occurred in 19.5% of patients. The 3-year and 5-year event free survival rates were 29.8% and 21.6% respectively. In conclusion, modified BFM regimen resulted in high induction rates but relatively poor 5-year event free survival. Infections related death and post induction abandonment of treatment were the main reasons for poor overall results.

Background: Geriatric anemia is a global health problem because of its high prevalence and associated significant morbidity and mortality. Aim: The objectives of this study were to estimate the pattern of anemia in the elderly patients and the underlying etiology of anemia. Research Design and Methods: This was a hospital-based prospective observational study, conducted in patients aged 60 years and above at PGIMER, Chandigarh, a tertiary care center of North India. Anemia is defined as hemoglobin level less than 13 g/dl in men and 12 g/dl in women. Results: Among the 105 older patients with anemia, the mean value of hemoglobin was 8.8 ± 2.3 g/dl. The etiological distribution of anemia was iron deficiency in 26 patients (24.8%), chronic disease in 24 patients (22.9%), hematological disorders in 21 (20%), chronic kidney disease in 13 (12.4%), multifactorial in 8 (7.6%), vitamin B12 deficiency in 2 (1.9%), folate deficiency in 1 (0.9%), and hypothyroidism in 1 patient (0.9%). No etiology could be found in 9 patients (8.6%). 57.6% of the iron-deficient patients had upper gastrointestinal lesions and 30.7% had a nutritional cause. Common chronic diseases causing anemia were malignancy (36.6%) and liver disease (29.1%). The myelodysplastic syndrome was the commonest hematological disorder. 53.35% of the patients had normocytic anemia, 40% had microcytic anemia, and 6.6% had macrocytic anemia. Conclusions: In most of the cases, anemia in the elderly had a treatable cause. Thus, a thorough investigation including gastrointestinal endoscopy is warranted. Unexplained progressive or unresponsive anemia requires bone marrow examination.

Treatment for hairy cell leukemia (HCL) has evolved over the years from splenectomy to interferon to purine analogs to monoclonal antibody based therapy [1]. Until three decades ago, splenectomy wa...