Ten Thousand Cases of Leukemia: 1940–62

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Abstract
This review of 10,148 patients with leukemia diagnosed and treated in 98 different hospitals of various types and sizes indicates the major changes that have taken place during the 23-year period, 1940–62. These data provide a measure of the extent. to which the therapeutic advances developed in specialty centers have benefited the general run of patients. The data reveal that increased use of chemotherapy was associated with improved prognosis, more so for lymphocytic leukemia than the myelogenous form and more so in children than in adults. Despite the dramatic improvement in survival among children with acute lymphocytic leukemia, the prognosis for the average run of patients, as represented in this large unselected series, remains poor. In the most recent period (1960–62), the median survival time was only 11 months. Some specialty centers have reported more favorable survival results. How the effect of the new and modified treatment regimens introduced in recent years will be reflected in the survival experience of the general run of patients remains to be seen.

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