Objective: We investigated the health-related quality of life (HRQL) in survivors of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and evaluated the perceptions of the children, their siblings, and their parents. Materials and Methods: Seventy ALL survivors, who were between 7 and 17 years of age and had completed therapy ≥2 years, were included. The control group consisted of their healthy siblings. HRQL was assessed by the age-specific KINDL R questionnaire. Results: No significant differences could be found among HRQL scores of ALL survivors with respect to variables such as sex, risk group, and having chronic illness. HRQL scores for physical well-being, emotional well-being, family, and social functioning of the patient and sibling self-reports and parent proxy reports were lower than the expected values for healthy and chronically ill children. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that both ALL survivors and their families need help via psychological counseling programs to improve their HRQL even after completion of therapy.

Aim Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, more than 3.5 million Syrians have been under temporary protection status in Turkey. Because beta‐thalassemia (BT) is a prevalent disorder in the Mediterranean countries, we decided to estimate the prevalence of and make an overview of the demographic, socioeconomic, medical characteristics, and healthcare problems of refugee children with BT. Patients Eighteen Turkish Pediatric Hematology Oncology Centers (PHOC) with 318 refugee children from 235 families participated in the study. The mean age of the patients was 8.1 ± 4.8 years (0.5–21 years). The mean time after immigration to Turkey was 2.5 ± 1.5 years (range, 0.1–7 years). Seventy‐two (22.6%) of them were born and diagnosed with BT in Turkey. On physical examination, 82 patients (26%) were underweight and 121 patients (38%) were stunted. The appearance of a thalassemic face was reported for 207 patients (65.1%). Hepatomegaly and splenomegaly were reported in 217 (68.2%) and 168 (52.8%) patients, respectively. The median ferritin level was 2508 ng/mL (range, 17–21 000 ng/mL) at the first admission, and 2841 ng/mL (range, 26–12 981 ng/mL) at the last visit after two years of follow‐up in a PHOC (P > 0.05). The most frequently encountered mutation was IVSI‐110 (G>A) (31%). Before immigration, only 177 patients (55.6%) reported the use of chelators; after immigration it increased to 268 (84.3%). Conclusion Difficulties in communication, finding a competent translator capable in medical terminology, nonregular use of medications, and insensitivity to prenatal diagnosis were preliminary problems. The current extent of migration poses emerging socioeconomic and humanitarian challenges for refugee patients with BT.

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Objective:Rapid and effective treatment of invasive fungal infection (IFI) in patients with leukemia is important for survival. In this study, we aimed to describe variations regarding clinical features, treatment modalities, time of restarting chemotherapy, and outcome in children with IFI and acute leukemia (AL).Materials and Methods:The charts of all pediatric AL patients in our clinic between the years of 2001 and 2013 were retrospectively reviewed. All patients received prophylactic fluconazole during the chemotherapy period.Results:IFI was identified in 25 (14%) of 174 AL patients. Most of them were in the consolidation phase of chemotherapy and the patients had severe neutropenia. The median time between leukemia diagnosis and definition of IFI was 122 days. Twenty-four patients had pulmonary IFI. The most frequent finding on computed tomography was typical parenchymal nodules. The episodes were defined as proven in 4 (16%) patients, probable in 7 (28%) patients, and possible in 14 (56%) patients. The median time for discontinuation of chemotherapy was 27 days. IFI was treated successfully in all patients with voriconazole, amphotericin B, caspofungin, or posaconazole alone or in combination. Chemotherapy was restarted in 50% of the patients safely within 4 weeks and none of those patients experienced reactivation of IFI. All of them were given secondary prophylaxis. The median time for antifungal treatment and for secondary prophylaxis was 26 and 90 days, respectively. None of the patients died due to IFI.Conclusion:Our data show that rapid and effective antifungal therapy with rational treatment modalities may decrease the incidence of death and that restarting chemotherapy within several weeks may be safe in children with AL and IFI.

Introduction:In highly sensitized patients who have panel reactive antibodies (PRAs) before hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, primary graft failure risk may increase. In this study, we aimed to determine the association of PRA with engraftment, and graft versus host disease (GVHD) in pediatric patients.Materials and Methods: Forty-three PRA-positive and 42 PRAnegative patients were taken into study. Both groups were compared in terms of graft failure, acute GVHD, viral infection and survival rates. PRA-positive group was also divided into 2 according to treatment modality (steroid-only group/combination therapy) and compared for the same parameters.Results: There was no difference in PRA-positive and negative patients in terms of graft failure, acute GVHD and viral infections. Analysis of the PRA-positive group in itself showed that there was also no difference in terms of graft failure and viral infection frequency. The only difference is that acute grade 3 to 4 GVHD was higher in the steroid-only group. The 100-day overall survival was 90.2% and 90.4% for the PRA-positive and negative groups, respectively.Conclusions: Different treatment strategies like plasmapheresis, steroid, rituximab, or combination therapies can be used for the desensitization of PRA-positive patients before hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Patient-specific treatment modality for sensitized patients before transplant can increase the success rate.

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Background: Our aim was to identify risk factors and clinical correlates of endocrine complications in β-thalassemia major (BTM) patients.Materials and methods: This was a retrospective study carried out in the pediatric hematology and pediatric endocrinology departments of a tertiary healthcare institution with the medical data of 249 children with BTM (108 females, 43.4%; 141 males, 56.6%) with a median age of 7.17 (2 -17.8) years. Baseline descriptive, clinical features including endocrine complications and laboratory data were noted. Correlation between the presence of endocrine complications and demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables were sought. The effects of age, gender, race, height, weight, and splenectomy on endocrine complications were evaluated separately in each complication group. Results: Vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency is the most common endocrine complication (41.7%). According to Turkish children, Syrian children had also significantly lower vitamin D concentration (p=0.001). At least one endocrinopathy was reported in the majority of BTM patients (67.9%). Accordingly, pubertal status (p=0.014) and Syrian nationality (p=0.007) had significant impacts on TSH levels. Syrian children and those with delayed puber-ty had greater likelihood for subclinical or evident hypothyroidism. The likelihood of suffering from at least one endocrine complication was higher in older children (p=0.042) and those with Syrian nationality (p=0.025)Conclusion: Disorders of endocrine and metabolic nature are common in children with BTM. Early detection and protocol-based multidisciplinary management of these disorders constitute the most suitable strategies to in-crease patients' quality of life. Surveillance, early detection and treatment, and collaborative follow-up with a multidisciplinary team are the key points in the reduction of the severity and frequency of endocrine complica-tions as well as optimization of therapeutic outcomes.