PBM is a safe, feasible, and effective treatment for children affected by chemotherapy-induced OM, as it accelerates mucosal recovery and reduces pain.

No abstract

We performed a parallel evaluation of 5 automated reticulocyte counters to produce the immature reticulocyte fraction (IRF). We analyzed 225 samples from healthy control subjects, 115 from patients with various diseases, 38 with advanced aplasia, and 22 in early erythropoietic recovery after chemotherapy or bone marrow transplantation. The reference intervals were different for each instrument (ADVIA 120, 0.04-0.25; CELL DYN 4000, 0.15-0.35; GEN-S, 0.20-0.37; SE 9500 RET 0.05-0.21; VEGA RETIC: 0.06-0.23). The imprecision, obtained by 1-way analysis of variance on duplicates, was satisfactory for clinical use for all methods (coefficient of variation, 7.6%-20.5% in healthy subjects), although it was higher than the analytic goal based on biologic variability within subjects. The comparison of different methods shows that agreement is good only between SE 9500 RET CELL DYN 4000, and VEGA RETIC (r2 = 0.72-0.78). The study of diagnostic performance in distinguishing aplasia from early bone marrow recovery shows slightly different results (area under the curve from 0.70 for ADVIA 120 to 0.96 for SE 9500 RET). Even with slight differences, the fluorescence-based methods seem to be more robust than other methods for IRF measurement.

No abstract

COVID-19 has a mild clinical course with low mortality rate in general pediatric population, while variable outcomes have been described in children with cancer. Infectious diseases working party of the AIEOP collected data on the clinical characteristics and outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infections in pediatric oncology/hematology patients from April 2020 to May 2021, including the second and the third waves of the pandemic in Italy. Factors potentially associated with moderate, severe, or critical COVID-19 were analyzed. Of the 153 SARS-Cov2 infections recorded, 100 were asymptomatic and 53 symptomatic. The course of COVID-19 was mild in 41, moderate in 2, severe in 5, and critical in 5 children. A total of 40.5% of patients were hospitalized, ten requiring oxygen support and 5 admitted to the intensive care unit. Antibiotics and steroids were the most used therapies. No patient died due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Infections occurring early (< 60 days) after the diagnosis of the underlying disease or after SCT were associated to moderate, severe, and critical disease compared to infections occurring late (> 60 days) or during maintenance therapy. In the patients on active chemotherapy, 59% withdrew the treatment for a median of 15 days. SARS-CoV-2 presented a favorable outcome in children with cancer in Italy during the pandemic. Modification of therapy represents a major concern in this population. Our findings suggest considering regular chemotherapy continuation, particularly in patients on maintenance therapy or infected late after the diagnosis.