Delayed Diagnostic Interval and Survival Outcomes in Pediatric Leukemia: A Single-Center, Retrospective Study.

Objective: This study primarily focused on the diagnostic interval (DI), defined as the duration from the onset of leukemic symptoms to diagnosis. We investigated whether a prolonged DI is associated with the outcomes of pediatric leukemia.Methods: We retrospectively collected data of children with newly diagnosed pediatric leukemia at Okayama University Hospital from January 2007 to December 2022. Survival analyses were conducted using Kaplan-Meier methods, and an unadjusted analysis to compare differences in survival was performed using the log-rank test.Results: In total, 103 children with leukemia were included in the analysis. The median DI was 20 days (interquartile range, 9.5-33.5 days). A prolonged DI (>= 30 days) demonstrated no association with either 5-year event-free survival (70.1% for <30 days and 68.3% for >= 30 days, p = .99, log-rank test) or overall survival (84.7% for <30 days and 89.4% for >= 30 days, p = .85, log-rank test).Conclusions: A prolonged DI was not associated with the survival of children with leukemia. If a precise classification of leukemia biology is provided for pediatric patients, a prolonged DI may have little impact on the prognosis of these patients.