Bevacizumab-related acute toxicity appears to be low in children, even in combination with irinotecan. Further prospective trials are required to confirm the hypothetical efficacy of bevacizumab and to assess the risk of long-term toxicity especially in the youngest children.

Introduction In order to describe relapsed B‐cell non‐Hodgkin lymphoma and mature acute leukemia in children/adolescents treated with the Lymphomes Malins B (LMB) regimen and their outcome in the rituximab era, relapses in the French LMB2001 study were reviewed. Methods Between February 2001 and December 2011, 33 patients out of 773 (4.3%) relapsed; 27 had Burkitt lymphoma and six large B‐cell histology. Median age at diagnosis was 10.1 years. One patient was initially treated in risk group A, 21 in group B, and 11 in group C. Results Median time to relapse after diagnosis was 4.5 months (range 2.4‐13.6). Thirty‐two patients received salvage therapy. Twenty‐seven received rituximab mainly in addition to high‐dose cytarabine and etoposide (n = 18) and/or ifosfamide, carboplatin, and etoposide (n = 7). First‐line salvage chemotherapy response rate was 66% with 47% being complete remission (CR). Twenty‐one patients received high‐dose chemotherapy (HDC) followed by autologous (n = 13) or allogeneic (n = 8) transplant. With a median follow‐up of 6.8 years, the 5‐year survival rate after relapse was 36.4% (95% confidence interval [CI] 22‐53%). Twelve patients were still alive; all but one (group A) received consolidation treatment. Achieving CR before consolidation was significantly associated with better survival, with a 5‐year survival rate of 75% (95% CI 46.8‐91.1%) for patients in CR before HDC, 33% (95% CI 9.7‐70%) for patients in partial remission, and 0% for nonresponders (P = .033). Conclusion Survival of children/adolescents with mature B‐cell lymphoma/leukemia remains poor after relapse with no apparent improvement with rituximab. Response rates to salvage chemo‐immunotherapies are insufficient and new drugs are urgently needed to improve disease control.

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Objective: Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is a rare and aggressive form of B-cell lymphoma that is curable using intensive chemotherapy. Obtaining a complete response (CR) at the end of induction chemotherapy is a major prognostic factor. This study retrospectively evaluates the potential impact of 18FDG-PET in the management of children with BL after induction chemotherapy, and the prognostic performance of the Deauville criteria.Methods: Nineteen children with BL treated according to the French LMB2001 protocol between 2005 and 2012 were included. 18FDG-PET and conventional imaging (CI) were performed after induction chemotherapy to confirm CR. 18FDG-PET was interpreted according to Deauville criteria with follow-up and/or histology as the gold standard.Results: 18FDG-PET was negative in 15 cases, in agreement with CI in 9/15 cases. The six discordant cases confirmed to be negative by histology, were considered as true negative for 18FDG-PET. Negative predictive value (NPV) of CI and 18FDG-PET were 73 and 93%, respectively. The 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) was significantly higher in patients with negative 18FDG-PET than those with positive 18FDG-PET (p = 0.011).Conclusion: 18FDG-PET interpreted using Deauville criteria can help confirm CR at the end of induction chemotherapy, with a prognostic impact on 5-year PFS. Its high NPV could limit the use of residual mass biopsy. Given the small size of our population, these results need to be confirmed by future prospective studies on a larger population.