title: Infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia: Lessons learned and future directions.
abstract: Compared with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in older children, ALL in infants has a dismal outcome because rearrangements of the mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL) gene occur in about 80% of these patients, leading to an aggressive type of leukemia. With most recent therapies, about 50% long-term event-free survival is achieved, but early bone marrow relapse remains a major problem. Early intensification of chemotherapy and new innovative therapies are necessary to improve outcome. Bone marrow transplantation should be limited to a small subset of well-recognized ALL patients with a very poor prognosis. New genetic and epigenetic insights into the biology of MLL-rearranged ALL suggest new possibilities for therapies.
authors.affiliation: Erasmus MC-Sophia Children's Hospital, Dr. Molewaterplein 60, 3015GJ, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. rob.pieters@erasmusmc.nl
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pieters
mesh_terms: D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy / Q000639:trends; D005544:Forecasting; D015321:Gene Rearrangement; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D051788:Myeloid-Lymphoid Leukemia Protein / Q000235:genetics*; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D051788:Myeloid-Lymphoid Leukemia Protein