Treatment adherence and abandonment in acute myeloid leukemia in pediatric patients at a low-resource cancer center in India

One of the causes for lower cure rates in acute childhood leukemia in low- and middle- income countries (LMIC) compared to high-income countries is abandonment from treatment. The International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) defines abandonment as failure to begin treatment or an absence of 4 weeks during treatment. At the pediatric ward at a low-resource cancer center in India, the abandonment rate from treatment of childhood AML was 20%, which is in concordance from other studies conducted in India and other LMIC, stating that abandonment is a problem and hindrance when treating with a curative intent.