BACKGROUND: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer in children and L-asparaginase is an essential component of the treatment. Cessation of L-asparaginase decreases event free survival. Acute pancreatitis is the toxicity that most commonly results in cessation of L-asparaginase. We tested whether serial ultrasound examinations could predict asparaginase-associated pancreatitis (AAP).

METHODS: Children (aged 1.0-17.9 years) with childhood ALL treated at the University Hospital Rigshopitalet, Copenhagen, according to the standard or intermediate risk arms of the NOPHO ALL2008 protocol, with PEG-asparaginase of 2 or 6 week intervals, for 30 weeks had their pancreas monitored using serial ultrasound in order to detect early signs of inflammation.

RESULTS: Nineteen of 31 eligible patients were included. Three of the included patients developed AAP. None of the patients, including the three patients that developed AAP, had signs of inflammatory edema or pancreas enzymes above three times the upper normal limit prior to AAP.

CONCLUSION: We found no signs of inflammatory edema within the pancreas on ultrasound during treatment with PEG-asparginase in our cohort prior to development of AAP or in patients that did not develop AAP.