Recent advances in the management of leukaemia

Abstract 

The prognosis for children with leukaemia has continued to improve over the past decade. The improved survival has, for the most part, not been caused by the introduction of new drugs. Instead, the improvement has resulted from a number of factors relevant to both acute lymphoblastic and acute myeloid leukaemia. Most important has been the progress made in the ability to assess prognosis using patient characteristics at diagnosis complemented by modern cytogenetic analysis of the leukaemic blasts. This has enabled patients to be allocated to appropriate treatment protocols, leading to an increased proportion of patients with a higher risk of relapse receiving more intensive chemotherapy. In addition, there has been a significant reduction in treatment-related mortality, mainly because of fewer infectious deaths, but also in part because of the lower rate of bone marrow transplantation seen in modern leukaemia protocols.

Keywords:  advances, paediatric, leukaemia, acute myeloid leukaemia, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, chronic myeloid leukaemia