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Microstructural asymmetry of the brain can provide more direct causal explanations of functional lateralization than can macrostructural asymmetry. We performed a cross-sectional diffusion imaging study of 314 patients treated for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) at a single institution and 92 healthy controls. An asymmetry index based on diffusion metrics was computed to quantify brain microstructural asymmetry. The effects of age and the asymmetry metrics of the two cohorts were examined with t-tests and linear models. We discovered two new types of microstructural asymmetry. Myelin-related asymmetry in controls was prominent in the back brain (89% right), whereas axon-related asymmetry occurred in the front brain (67% left) and back brain (88% right). These asymmetries indicate that white matter is more mature and more myelinated in the left back brain, potentially explaining the leftward lateralization of language and visual functions. The asymmetries increase throughout childhood and adolescence (P = 0.04) but were significantly less in patients treated for ALL (P<0.01), especially in younger patients. Our results indicate that atypical brain development may appear long before patients treated with chemotherapy become symptomatic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Idiopathic acquired aplastic anemia (AA) is a rare lymphocyte-mediated bone marrow aplasia. No specific mechanisms or triggers of AA have been identified. We recently observed several patients who developed AA after Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). We hypothesized that the co-occurrence of HL and AA is not random and may be etiologically significant. To test this hypothesis, we determined the incidence of AA in HL patients at our institution. We identified four patients with co-occurring HL and AA, with the incidence of AA in HL patients >20-fold higher compared to the general population. We identified 12 additional patients with AA and HL through a systematic literature review. Of the 16 total patients,15 (93.8%) developed AA after or concurrent with a HL diagnosis. None of the patients had marrow involvement by HL. Five of 15 patients were in complete remission from HL at the time of AA diagnosis, and six had a concurrent presentation with no prior cytotoxic therapy, with diagnostic timeframe information unavailable for four patients. The median interval between HL diagnosis and AA onset was 16 months, ranging from concurrent to 14 years after a HL diagnosis. The median survival after AA diagnosis was 14 months (range: 1 month to 20 years). Our results show that patients with HL have a higher incidence of AA compared to the general population and suggest that HL-related immune dysregulation may be a risk factor for AA. Better recognition and management of AA in HL patients is needed to improve outcomes in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: A cohort of pediatric patients with AML treated at hospitals contributing to the Pediatric Health Information System was used to evaluate differences in opioid utilization by sex, age, race, and insurance. Methods: Billing data were used to compute the prevalence of opioid exposure and to quantify rates of utilization among those exposed to opioids as days of use per 1000 inpatient days. Multivariable regressions were used to compare opioid prevalence, and rates of utilization among those exposed. Results: On average across courses, 95.2% of patients were exposed to analgesics, 84.7% were exposed to non-opioid analgesics and 77.7% were exposed to opioids. The proportion of opioid-exposed patients increased with age, but did not differ by gender, race, or insurance status. Analyses limited to patients exposed to opioids revealed modest differences in days of opioid use among female patients (adjusted rate ratio (aRR) = 1.19, 95% CI: 1.11, 1.28), patients <1 year (aRR = 1.37, 95% CI: 1.21, 1.55) or ≥10 years of age (aRR = 1.63, 95% CI: 1.46, 1.82), whereas Asian patients received fewer days of opioids compared with white patients (aRR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.61, 0.95). There was moderate hospital-level variability in both the prevalence of opioid utilization overall and preference for specific opioid medications. There was greater inconsistency in practice concerning choices for supplemental and alternative opioids than in first-line opioid utilization. Conclusion: Additional work is needed to discern whether observed differences in opioid utilization by age and race reflect a difference in treatment or a difference in the experience of pain. Future studies should also explore the factors which guide decisions on opioid selections in an attempt to explain the variability across institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mature B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL) constitutes a collection of relatively rare pediatric malignancies. In order to utilize administrative data to perform large-scale epidemiologic studies within this population, a two-step process was used to assemble a 12-year cohort of B-NHL patients treated between 2004 and 2015 within the Pediatric Health Information System database. Patients were identified by ICD-9 codes, and their chemotherapy data were then manually reviewed against standard B-NHL treatment regimens. A total of 1,409 patients were eligible for cohort inclusion. This process was validated at a single center, utilizing both an institutional tumor registry and medical record review as the gold standards. The validation demonstrated appropriate sensitivity (91.5%) and positive predictive value (95.1%) to allow for the future use of this cohort for epidemiologic and comparative effectiveness research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]