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Prognostic impact of vascular density and fibrosis in the bone marrow of children with high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Leukemia volume 19, pages 1998–2001 (2005)Cite this article

TO THE EDITOR

It is now established that angiogenesis is important in solid tumors as well as in hematological diseases.1 Whether measurements of angiogenesis can give prognostic information in childhood leukemia is however controversial.2 To our knowledge micro vessel density (MVD) never has been shown to be of prognostic significance in any of the acute leukemias, childhood or adult. Fibrosis may complicate bone marrow (BM) disease and exerts in its advanced stage a negative influence on survival of patients due to BM failure, particularly in myelo-proliferative disorders.3 Several recent reports have shown that BM fibrosis evaluated by diverse methods is associated with a poor prognosis in CML.4 The prognostic impact of BM fibrosis in childhood ALL has not been studied since the risk-stratified approach for treatment was introduced. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prognostic impact of MVD and reticulin fiber density (RFD) in the BM of children with newly diagnosed ALL.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Pernilla Andersson, Birgitta Ekblom and Elisabeth Dahlberg for technical assistance and Hans Stenlund for statistical guidance. The Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation, Mary Beaves Foundation, the Oscar Foundation and the Lions Foundation supported this work financially.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Sciences, Pediatrics, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    U Norén-Nyström & E Forestier

  2. Department of Medical Biosciences, Pathology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    U Norén-Nyström, G Roos & A Bergh

  3. Department of Medical Biosciences, Clinical Genetics, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    E Forestier

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  1. U Norén-Nyström
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  2. G Roos
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Correspondence to U Norén-Nyström.

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Norén-Nyström, U., Roos, G., Bergh, A. et al. Prognostic impact of vascular density and fibrosis in the bone marrow of children with high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Leukemia 19, 1998–2001 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2403953

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2403953

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