Differences in prognosis for boys and girls with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
In the period 1968--78, 3161 children were enrolled in six studies of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia by participating institutions of the Childrens Cancer Study Group. In the first two studies, which did not include central-nervous-system (CNS) prophylaxis in the treatment programme, the outcome for male and female patients was very similar. In the following four studies, which included radiation prophylaxis to the CNS, a difference in outcome favouring females appeared consistently. This difference began about 6--12 months after initial remission and was further accentuated by withdrawal of therapy. Some of these studies also included a randomised trial of duration of therapy, studying 3 versus 5 years of maintenance treatment. Analysis of these studies suggests that sex group has implications both for duration of treatment and for optimum central-nervous-system prophylaxis.
D000293:Adolescent; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002648:Child; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007938:Leukemia / Q000188:drug therapy; D007945:Leukemia, Lymphoid / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D011897:Random Allocation; D012737:Sex Factors; D013997:Time Factors