Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia

Judith M Chessells, Institute of Child Health, University College, London, UK

Published online: April 2001

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0002172

Lymphoblastic leukaemia is a heterogeneous disease of children and adults resulting from clonal expansion of progenitor cells. Treatment with intensive cytotoxic therapy is effective in the majority of children, but treatments for adults are less effective, probably because the disease originates from relatively drug-resistant stem cells.

Keywords: leukaemia; clinical trials; bone marrow transplantation; molecular genetics

 References
    Chessells JM (1994) Central nervous system directed therapy in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Ballière's Clinical Haematology 7: 349–363.
    Chessells JM (1998) Relapsed lymphoblastic leukaemia in children: a continuing challenge. British Journal of Haematology 102: 423–438.
    Chessells JM, Hall E, Prentice HG, Durrant J, Bailey CC and Richards SM (1998) The impact of age on outcome in lymphoblastic leukaemia; MRC UKALL X and XA compared. A report from the MRC Paediatric and Adult Working Parties. Leukemia 12: 463–473.
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 Further Reading
    book Catovsky D and Hoffbrand AV (1999) "Acute leukaemias". In: Hoffbrand AV, Lewis SM and Tuddenham EGD (eds) Postgraduate Haematology, 4th edn, pp. 373–404. London: Butterworths.
    book Heslop HE, Brenner MK and Krance RA (1999) "Bone marrow transplantation". In: Hoffbrand AV, Lewis SM and Tuddenham EGD (eds) Postgraduate Haematology, 4th edn, pp. 430–549. London: Butterworths.
    book Secker-Walker LM (1999) "Cytogenetics". In: Hoffbrand AV, Lewis SM and Tuddenham EGD (eds) Postgraduate Haematology, 4th edn, pp. 336–354. London: Butterworths.
    book Wickremasinghe RG and Hoffbrand AV (1999) "The molecular basis of leukaemia". In: Hoffbrand AV, Lewis SM and Tuddenham EGD (eds) Postgraduate Haematology, 4th edn, pp. 354–373. London: Butterworths.

Related Sub-Topics:

Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Methods | Tumour Immunology | Cell Biology of Cancer
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Article Title: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia
 
How to Cite close
Chessells, Judith M(Apr 2001) Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0002172]