[Acute childhood leukemia]

Abstract

The overall event-free survival of childhood acute leukemia has increased to 60-65% in ALL and to 40-60% in ANLL. This progress has resulted from a closely integrated scientific effort, including drug development, pharmacology, preclinical modeling, experimental design with respect to clinical trials, quantitative criteria for response, and a series of clinical trials in which the importance of complete remission, of dose and schedule, of sequencing chemotherapeutic agents, of pharmacological sanctuaries, and particularly of combination chemotherapy was studied. In this paper, recent treatment results of acute childhood leukemia made by the Children's Cancer and Leukemia Study Group of Japan were reviewed, and current challenges and future perspectives are discussed.