It is hoped that treatment with these agents will be less toxic and more effective than current chemotherapy programs.
• Another new concept in therapy involves using specific antibodies. These are proteins that bind to leukemia
cells and not to normal cells. The antibodies can carry some cell killing agent such as ricin or radioactive
isotopes directly to the leukemia cells, letting the agent kill the leukemia cells while sparing the normal white
blood cells and platelets. In this way, complications such as infection and bleeding may be avoided. Results on
this type of treatment will be available in the next few years.
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)
Children with ALL have a better long-term survival than adult patients. There are many possible reasons for this difference. Twenty percent of adult patients have a chromosomal marker, the Philadelphia chromosome, that signifies a more difficult form of leukemia to treat. However, adult patients may still have a significant response. A bone marrow transplant may be considered in first remission in adults with Philadelphia chromosome-positive ALL.
Standard Treatment ALL patients have a higher response rate to chemotherapy than do patients with AML and more drugs are available to treat this form of the disease. Drugs commonly used for induction treatment include vincristine , prednisone , idarubicin or doxorubicin , L-asparaginase, cyclophosphamide and cytosine arabinoside.
