Effect Of Huangqi Injection On Short-term Prognosis In Children With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Objective:To investigate the effect of Huangqi injection on the short-term prognosis in childhood with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).Methods:A retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical data of105children newly diagnosed with ALL between January2009and December2012. These children were randomly divided into treatment group (18low-risk cases,7medium-risk cases, and24high-risk cases) and control group (21low-risk cases,7medium-risk cases,28high-risk cases). Both groups were given remission induction therapy based on the levels of risk. Throughout the remission induction therapy, the treatment group also received Huangqi injection (0.5-1.0mL/kg per day) by intravenous infusion, while the control group was given0.9%sodium chloride injection instead. The two groups were compared in terms of distribution of prognostic factors and complete remission (CR) rate after remission induction therapy, as well as the incidence of minimal residual disease (MRD)(≥10-4and<10-4) among all patients in the two groups on day19of remission induction therapy and among B-ALL patients in the two groups when achieving a CR at the end of remission induction therapy. Results:Of the105children with ALL,99had B-ALL, and6had T-ALL. There were no significant differences in the distribution of prognostic factors between the two groups (P>0.05). The overall CR rate of105patients was79%; there was no significant difference in CR rate between the treatment and control groups (82%vs77%; P>0.05); also, no significant differences were found between the two groups in the CR rates among high-, medium-, and low-risk cases (P>0.05). On day19of remission induction therapy, the incidence of MRD≥10-4in the treatment group was significantly lower than that in the control group (69%vs95%; P<0.05); among80children with B-ALL who achieved a CR (43cases in the control group and37cases in the treatment group), the incidence of MRD≥10-4was significantly lower in the treatment group than in the control group (27%vs58%; P<0.05); in both circumstances above, the high-and low-risk cases in the treatment group had a significantly lower incidence of MRD≥10-4than the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Huangqi injection combined with chemotherapy has an enhanced anti-tumor effect and can improve the short-term prognosis and clinical outcome in children with ALL.