The impact of Agent Orange exposure on prognosis and management in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia: a National Veteran Affairs Tumor Registry Study

Exposure to Agent Orange (AO) has been associated with the development of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). We performed a retrospective study of 2052 Vietnam veterans identified in the National VA Tumor Registry to assess the impact of AO exposure on CLL prognosis, treatment and survival. Prognostic factors did not differ based on exposure. Veterans exposed to AO were diagnosed younger (63.2 vs. 70.5 years, p < .0001) and had longer overall survival (median not reached vs. 91 months, p < .001). This prolonged survival was in the subgroups of patients aged 60-69 years (p< .0001) and those with 11q deletion (p < .0001). Those exposed to AO were more likely to be treated with fludarabine, chlorambucil and rituximab (38 vs. 21%, p < .001) and bendamustine plus rituximab (25 vs. 18%, p = 0.039) as first line therapy. Exposure to AO was not associated with either poor prognostic factors or shortened overall survival in our large veteran population with CLL.

Synchronous and metachronous malignancies: analysis of the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs (VA) tumor registry

PURPOSE

Multiple primary malignancies (MPMs) are increasing as cancer survivorship improves. A large analysis of the SEER database estimates that approximately 16 % of new cancers reported to their registry represent a second or higher order malignancy. The purpose of this study is to estimate the number of MPM diagnoses and to define differences in synchronous and metachronous cancers in the Veterans Affairs (VA) population.

METHODS

The primary objective of this study was to determine the proportion of second or higher order cancers diagnosed at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2009. The secondary objectives were to analyze and compare correlative demographic, exposure, clinical, and tumor data among those with synchronous and metachronous malignancies. We included any patient with a diagnosis of a malignant cancer during the study period.

RESULT

A total of 4,449 patients were diagnosed with malignancies during the study period. Of these, 506 patients (11.4 % of cancer diagnoses) had a diagnosis of a second or higher order malignancy. Of the 506 patients, 124 (24.3 %) had synchronous malignancies and 383 (75.5 %) had metachronous malignancies. The most common malignancy pairing was prostate cancer with bladder/ureter cancer (12 %) of MPM diagnoses. Differences between patients with synchronous and metachronous second occurrences were identified.

CONCLUSION

Multiple primary malignancies are a growing area of interest in cancer survivorship. At our institution, approximately 1 in 9 new cancer diagnoses during the 5-year study period represented second-order malignancies. Our data suggest that the VA population is at risk of developing second primary cancers. Further analysis of this population to identify unique risk factors is warranted.

The impact of Agent Orange exposure on presentation and prognosis of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Exposure to Agent Orange (AO) and the contaminating chemical 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD) has been associated with the development of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Of the 195 veterans diagnosed with CLL from 2001 to 2010 in a retrospective cohort from the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 33 (17%) were exposed to AO. Prognostic factors including Rai stage, lymphocyte doubling time and cytogenetics did not differ between exposed and unexposed patients. Exposed patients were younger at diagnosis (61 vs. 72 years, p < 0.0001) and time to CLL treatment was shorter (9.6 vs. 30.2 months, p = 0.02). Overall survival did not differ between exposed and unexposed patients on Kaplan-Meier analysis, but when adjusted for age, AO exposure had a hazard ratio of death of 1.8 compared to non-exposure (95% confidence interval 0.7-4.5, p = 0.24). The high estimate of the mortality hazard combined with the relatively low numbers in the exposure group suggests that further examination in a larger patient population is warranted.