Improved acute lymphoblastic leukemia treatment offers hope for eliminating i...( omit cranial irradiation while still a...),Health

omit cranial irradiation while still achieving a high cure rate for ALL would be an important breakthrough," Pui said. "Radiation in children often leads to long-term side effects, such as second cancer and disruption of intellectual development, academic performance and growth. We'd like to spare our children those problems and give them a better quality of life as adults."

Currently, clinicians commonly use cranial radiation to treat patients at high risk of developing a relapse of ALL in the central nervous system. The new, stricter criteria allowed the St. Jude clinicians to limit cranial irradiation to 12 percent of patients in Study XIIIB, compared to 22 percent of those in a previous clinical trial, Total Therapy Study XIIIA.

Total Therapy Study XIIIB included 247 patients 18 years old and younger who underwent treatment for ALL and were followed for up to nine years to determine the treatment effectiveness and to monitor therapy side effects. A total of 117 patients were classified as having low-risk ALL, while 130 were classified as high risk.

Lower-risk patients were identified according to a variety of specific characteristics. For example, those who did not have a form of leukemia called T-cell ALL, or a certain genetic mutation in their leukemic cells called the Philadelphia chromosome were considered lower risk.

The classification system used in Study XIIIB, a revision of the one used in Study XIIIA, improved investigators' ability to identify patients who should get more intensive post-remission treatment to increase the chance of event-free survival. Post-remission therapy is given after the initial treatment to kill leukemic cells remaining after the initial, or induction, therapy. High-risk patients received more intensive chemotherapy than did low-risk patients.

In addition, while all patients received initial intrathecal chemotherapy, high-risk patients received more doses over time than did low-risk patients. Patien
'"/>

Contact: Bonnie Cameron
bonnie.cameron@stjude.org
901-495-4815
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
1-Nov-2004

Page: 1 2 3
Related medicine news :

1. Improved mood tied to better language ability
2. Improved procurement could more than double availability of life-saving transplant organs
3. Improved molecular beacons show promise for cancer detection, rapid viral diagnosis
4. Patient Satisfaction And Decision Making Quality Greatly Improved During Improved Medical Consultations, UCSF Researchers Report
5. Improved Fitness Lowers Mortality Risk Of Male Heart-Attack Survivors
6. Improved Ritalin^™ Offers Smaller Doses And Fewer Side Effects
7. Improved Medications Can Nip Allergy Season In The Bud
8. Secondary Prevention Of Heart Disease Should Be Improved
9. Cardiac Arrests Outside Hospital - Survival Could Be Improved By Better Public Awareness Of Symptoms
10. Combined Therapy Improved Care Of Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Proper Use Of New Oral Medications Evaluated
11. Dedicated hospital stroke centers improve quality of acute care