Influence of length of time to diagnosis and treatment on the survival of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A population-based study

The objectives were to describe times to diagnosis and initiation of treatment in pediatric ALL in Ontario from 1997 to 2007, and to measure their impact on OS and EFS. In 1000 children, the median times to diagnosis and treatment were both 1 day (IQR = 1-2). Those who began treatment >3 days after diagnosis had inferior OS (AHR = 2.49; 95% CI = 1.40-4.43; p = 0.002), and inferior EFS (AHR = 1.73; 95% CI = 1.01-2.96; p = 0.047) compared to those who began treatment ≤ 3 days after diagnosis. There was no statistically significant relationship between time to diagnosis and survival. Longer time to treatment was associated with worse survival in pediatric ALL; reasons for this relationship may be multi-factorial.