Introduction

Abstract

Clinical research in the field of pediatric oncology has been carried out in the Federal Republic of Germany in the form of multicenter cooperative therapy studies since the early 1970s [101]. One of the first studies, which investigated the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), was started by Lampert in 1971 for the Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Leukamieforschung und -behandlung im Kindesalter (German Study Group for Research and Treatment of Leukemia in Childhood). For the first time, a high degree of uniformity in treatment was thus achieved in this country [72]. At the same time, Riehm developed a remarkably effective therapy concept for ALL. It consisted of an eight-week combined induction/consolidation phase with eight different cytotoxic agents and irradiation of the central nervous system as well as subsequent maintenance therapy [139, 140]. The same concept was adopted by the first cooperative acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) study BFM-78.