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The Need for New Agents

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New Agents for the Treatment of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

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Abstract

Since the 1960s, we have progressed from little expectation of survival for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) to 80% 5-year event-free survival and probable long-term cure. Therapy is long and toxic in terms of the physical, emotional and psychological impact on our patients and their families. We can try to alleviate wherever possible those side effects but must not do so at the expense of significantly worsened survival. The balance to be achieved between efficacy and toxicity must be quantified and assessed. How that has been achieved is one of the medical success stories of the twentieth century. It is useful to explore the pathway along which the early pioneers made their progress towards finding potential curative therapy, what mistakes we have made along the way and how we can improve therapy further, to achieve 100% cure rates. Can we improve on the way in which we use our currently available cytotoxics, or do we need totally new approaches for some or all ALL patients?

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  1. 5 South Gillsland Road, Edinburgh, EH10 5DE, UK

    Tim Eden

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Correspondence to Tim Eden .

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  1. Christie Hospital, Dept. Paediatric & Adolescent Oncology, University of Manchester, Manchester, M20 4BX, United Kingdom

    Vaskar Saha

  2. , School of Cancer Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom

    Pamela Kearns

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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

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Eden, T. (2011). The Need for New Agents. In: Saha, V., Kearns, P. (eds) New Agents for the Treatment of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8459-3_1

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