Preventive Central-Nervous-System Therapy in Acute Leukemia

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Abstract
Because acute leukemia, unlike other forms of cancer, is disseminated at the time of diagnosis, systemic chemotherapy has been the cornerstone of treatment. The increasingly skillful use of effective drugs improved the frequency and duration of remission especially in children with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). Better control of systemic leukemia and longer survival were accompanied, however, by the increased frequency of Central-nervous-system (CNS) (meningeal) involvement. Treatment with intrathecal chemotherapy, irradiation or both was only palliative. Recurrence with its attendant complications was distressingly common.In 1962 the group at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis began a series of studies . . .