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Pediatric-Like Therapy for Adults with ALL

  • ACUTE LEUKEMIAS (R STONE, SECTION EDITOR)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Ten years ago, the first studies comparing the results of adult versus pediatric protocols in adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) clearly showed that differences in ALL genetics and treatment tolerance could not be the only reasons for the worse outcome observed in adults with this disease as compared to children. It became evident that intensified pediatric chemotherapy regimens could be associated with better response rates and longer survival in adults as well. During the last decade, the use of pediatric-like or pediatric-inspired protocols in adults allowed markedly improving the outcome of young adult patients aged up from 40 years to 60 years, confirming this initial observation. Administration of pediatric-like therapy in adults is now associated with estimated 5-year overall survival comprised between 60 % and 70 %. In this new context, the risk factors and the place of stem cell transplantation need to be reassessed.

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Conflict of Interest

Dr. Hervé Dombret, Dr. Thomas Cluzeau, and Dr. Nicolas Boissel each declare no potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

Dr. Françoise Huguet has served on the ad boards for BMS, Novartis, Pfizer, Ariad, and Amgen.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hematology, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), University Paris Diderot, Institut Universitaire d’Hématologie, EA3518, Paris, France

    Hervé Dombret, Thomas Cluzeau & Nicolas Boissel

  2. Department of Hematology, Hôpital Purpan, University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France

    Françoise Huguet

Authors
  1. Hervé Dombret
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  2. Thomas Cluzeau
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  3. Françoise Huguet
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  4. Nicolas Boissel
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Correspondence to Hervé Dombret.

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Dombret, H., Cluzeau, T., Huguet, F. et al. Pediatric-Like Therapy for Adults with ALL. Curr Hematol Malig Rep 9, 158–164 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11899-014-0210-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11899-014-0210-9

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