Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia in Children

Detailed discussions of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) in childhood are available in the standard texts of hematology.(1) In this paper the purpose will be to review the new information of the last two years in consideration of etiology, risk factors for prognosis and treatment assignment, the disease in infancy, current treatment approaches, the problem of relapse, and the late consequences of the disease and its treatment. It is tempting to deal also with the growing information about the molecular biological aspects of the disease and its implications for the clinical features and response to therapy. However, it would take a separate paper to do that topic justice. Etiology It has long been known that there are geographical differences as to the incidence of the disease and that there has been a striking change in incidence among children in some countries since the middle of this century.(2) These observations clearly suggest environmental factors that influence the risk of this disease. However, in spite of the great deal of attention in the lay press that has been given to electromagnetic forces, parental exposure to irradiation, and the eating of processed meats, a recent careful study i