Osteonecrosis in Korean Paediatric and Young Adults with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia or Lymphoblastic Lymphoma: A Nationwide Epidemiological Study

Osteonecrosis (ON) is a serious complication of acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL) or lymphoblastic lymphoma (LBL) treatment, and there is little information regarding ON in Korean paediatric and young adult patients. This retrospective cohort study assessed the cumulative incidence of and risk factors for ON using national health insurance claims data from 2008 to 2019 in 4861 ALL/LBL patients. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to estimate the cumulative incidence of ON according to age groups; the Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to identify risk factors related to ON development after diagnosing ALL/LBL. A cause-specific hazard model with time-varying covariates was used to assess the effects of risk factors. Overall, 158 (3.25%) patients were diagnosed with ON, among whom 23 underwent orthopaedic surgeries. Older age, radiotherapy (HR = 2.62, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.87–3.66), HSCT (HR = 2.40, 95% CI 1.74–3.31), steroid use and anthracycline use (HR = 2.76, CI 1.85–4.14) were related to ON in the univariate analysis. In the multivariate analysis, age and steroid and asparaginase use (HR = 1.99, CI 1.30–3.06) were factors associated with ON. These results suggest that Korean patients with ALL/LBL who used steroids and asparaginase should be closely monitored during follow-up, even among young adult patients.