Specific populations with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) tended to experience delays in chemotherapy in an analysis involving nearly 1,100 individuals.

Investigators analyzed delays in postremission chemotherapy in Philadelphia chromosome-negative patients who completed induction chemotherapy, achieved complete remission, and started intensification. Among the results:

• Duration of hospitalization during phase I resulted in increased odds of a very long delay by 20%.

• Thrombocytopenia during phase I increased these odds by 16%; when it occurred during phase II the odds went up by 13%.

• Chemotherapy dose reductions during induction phase I upped the odds by 72%.

• Females had a 53% increased risk of experiencing very long delays, while blacks were more than three times as likely and Asians were more than twice as likely to see such.

• Those undergoing alloHCT had significantly worse overall and event-free survival after very long delays than those who did not endure delays.