THURSDAY, Jan. 12, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- Advances in diagnosis and treatment mean that a once deadly childhood blood cancer will soon be curable in nearly 90 percent of cases, experts report.
The use of gene-based diagnosis and treatment, more effective use of existing drugs, and the adoption of emerging disease-management strategies will continue to increase the cure rate for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), according to a report by researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, in Memphis, Tenn.
In 1962, the cure rate for this disease was just 4 percent, they note.
Doctors can now identify patients who will likely not respond to standard treatment and need to be treated more aggressively. Doctors are also able to select specific drugs and drug dosages for individual patients, the report said.
Research has also led to treatment improvements that reduce the long-term toxic side effects of therapy by reducing or avoiding the use of certain drugs or radiation that can damage major organs or cause secondary cancers.
"A 90 percent cure rate for ALL is quite possible in the near future if we continue to incorporate the breakthroughs of past decades and successfully overcome the remaining challenges," Dr. Ching-Hon Pui, director of the Leukemia/Lymphoma Division at St. Jude, said in a prepared statement.
The report appears in the Jan. 12 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about childhood ALL.
