Submitted May 4, 2007
Accepted June 19, 2007
How I treat acute lymphocytic leukemia in adults
Jacob M. Rowe* and Anthony H. Goldstone
Department of Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Rambam Medical Center & Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
Director of Services, North London Cancer Network, UCL Hospitals, London, United Kingdom
* Corresponding author; email: rowe{at}jimmy.harvard.edu.
The treatment of newly diagnosed ALL in adults remains unsatisfactory. Not withstanding the outstanding progress in curing childhood ALL, only about one third of adults younger than 60 years can be cured, and the overall published survival curves have not changed significantly over the past 15 years. Recent therapeutic advances in allogeneic transplantation through the conduct of large collaborative studies; better understanding of the relevance of cytogenetics; improved molecular techniques for the detection of minimal residual disease, as well as clinical research into novel biologic and targeted therapies have all combined to offer potentially a better hope for an improved outcome in this disease. The current approach to the management in 2007 of this disease is presented by way of a discussion of illustrative cases. In this uncommon and difficult disease, well structured intergroup studies will remain vital for future progress.
