From the Department of Leukemia, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Authors disclosures of potential conflicts of interest are found at the end of this article.
Address reprint requests to Susan M. O'Brien, MD, Professor and Internist, Department of Leukemia, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd, Unit 428, Houston, TX 77030; e-mail: sobrien{at}mdanderson.org
Overview: Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) is increasingly recognized as a highly heterogenous disease comprising many entities for which different treatment strategies may be applied.1,2 This review focuses on two specific subtypes of ALL, Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) disease and mature B-cell acute leukemia or Burkitt leukemia. Historically, these two subsets were among the worst prognostic subsets of ALL. Even if patients entered complete remission, relapses were frequent, and very few patients were cured. Recent advances in treatment for both of these subsets have dramatically changed the natural history of the disease and enabled a substantial fraction of patients to be cured.