Treatment

(Source: www.bethematch.org)

ALL can get worse quickly, so doctors usually begin treatment right away. To plan the treatment, doctors look at a patient's risk factors (also called prognostic factors). Risk factors are patient and disease traits that clinical research studies have linked to better or poorer outcomes from treatment. Examples of risk factors are a patient's age and the type of ALL he or she has. For more details, see Risk Factors for Planning ALL Treatment.

For a patient with ALL, the treatment plan may include:

• Chemotherapy — drugs that destroy cancer cells or stop them from growing (discussed further below). Some form of chemotherapy will be part of the treatment plan for all patients with ALL.
• Radiation therapy — most patients do not receive radiation therapy. However, children who have signs of disease in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) or have a high risk of the disease spreading to this area may receive radiation therapy to the brain.
• Bone marrow or cord blood transplant (also called a BMT) — a transplant (discussed further below) offers some patients the best chance for a long-term remission of their disease. Because transplants can have serious risks, this treatment is used for patients who are less likely to reach a long-term remission with chemotherapy alone.

Chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia

There are three phases of chemotherapy treatment for ALL: induction, consolidation and maintenance. Many patients also receive treatment called intrathecal chemotherapy to prevent leukemia from spreading to the central nervous system.

Induction chemotherapy

Most patients with ALL are given induction chemotherapy. The goal of induction therapy is to bring the disease into remission. Remission is when the patient's blood counts return to normal and bone marrow samples show no sign of disease. Induction therapy achieves a remission in more than 95% of children and in about 75% to 89% of adults. [1, 2] Induction therapy is usually very intense and lasts about one month. After induction chemotherapy, the next step may be a transplant or consolidation chemotherapy, depending on the treatment plan.

Consolidation therapy

Consolidation therapy, the second phase of chemotherapy, is also intense. It lasts about four to eight months. The goal of consolidation therapy is to reduce the number of disease cells left in the body. The drugs and doses used during consolidation therapy depend on the patient's risk factors.

Maintenance therapy

If a patient stays in remission after induction and consolidation therapy, maintenance therapy begins. The goal is to destroy any disease cells that remain so that the leukemia is completely gone. Maintenance therapy is less intense than the other two phases. It may last two to three years.

Intrathecal chemotherapy

During all three phases of chemotherapy treatment, many patients receive extra chemotherapy to destroy leukemia cells that may have spread to the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord). This chemotherapy is injected right into the spinal fluid using a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) or an Omaya reservoir (a device placed under the scalp). It is called intrathecal chemotherapy.