Myths and lessons from the adult/pediatric interface in acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
The development of effective therapy for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is one of the great successes of clinical oncology, with long-term survival achieved in over 80% of patients. However, cure rates for adults with ALL remain relatively low, with only 40% of patients cured. With an age-unrestricted, biology-based approach, we anticipate a better understanding about why these outcome differences exist, and think that by extending successful pediatric clinical programs to include adult patients with ALL, we can directly compare uniformly treated adults and children in terms of response to therapy, toxicity and underlying biology.
Sallan
Stephen E
SE
Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA. stephen_sallan@dfci.harvard.edu
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome