Introduction. There are no epidemiological data on the incidence and survival of adult patients with acute leukemia (AL) in Poland. Moreover, the data reported by the National Cancer Registry are incomplete and do not present actual number and structure of the incidence. Knowing the incidence and survival rates of AL is however required for assessing the needs of using specialised diagnostic procedures and treatments, including the costs of supportive care.

Aims/objectives. The aim of the study was to determine incidence rates of AL, acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in Poland, the leukemia subtype, patient age distribution and geographic location of cases. Furthermore, the aim was the analysis of used diagnostic procedures and type of treatment, and analysis of probability of survival of leukemia patients according to leukemia type/subtype, patient age, and given treatment.

Materials and methods. According to the 2003 findings of Polish Adult Leukemia Group (PALG), at the Institute of Hematology and Transfusion Medicine, an Registry for Acute Leukemia in Adults was set up which was based on notifications sent by surveyed hematological centres in Poland. Such data enabled the distribution of AL to become analysed, its incidence rates deter­mined and survival times to be calculated. The presented study reports an analyses of cases during 2004 to 2010.

Results. There were 643 AL cases reported annually, in total 4601 new cases were reported between 2004 and 2010. Those with AML accounted for 80% patients and when broken down into age groups, the lowest rates were seen in patients below 30 years, with rates then increasing with age. In contrast, it was the youngest patients (below 30 years) that constituted the largest group for ALL cases. Crude incidence rates were as follows; 2.51/100,000 (AL), 2.17/100,000 (AML) and 0.34/100,000 (ALL), where the highest such rates for AML were in the oldest patient group, whilst the highest for ALL were found in those youngest. The median survival time for AL patients was 7,2 months, whereas the three and five year survival probabilities were respectively 21% and 17.6%. For the AML cases, the median survival time was 6 months and the three and five year survival probabilities were respectively 18.9% and 16%. Correspondingly for ALL patients, the median survival time was 13,2 months and the three and five year survival probabilities were respectively 29% and 25.8%. A significant correlation was observed between survival with patient age and patients undergoing intensive therapy, especially in clinical trials, possessed an enormous advantage over those undergoing palliative treatment. The best outcomes in the AML cases were seen when accompanied by recuring genetic aberrations. There was however no difference in patient survival times between B-ALL and T-ALL.

Conclusions. The Registry for Acute Leukemia in Adults in Poland does not provide the actual number of AL cases and therefore the incidence rates are unreliable. The distribution of incidence rates according to age groups however demonstrated similar trends observed in other countries, as did analyses by gender. Survival times in the younger and older age groups were worse compared to other registries. Similar relationships were seen between survival times and age, AL subtype, and with treatment as in other reports.