CHILDRENS CANCER GROUP (CCG) INITIATIVES IN CHILDHOOD ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC-LEUKEMIA

Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the single most common malignancy in children([1]) and its incidence is increasing.([2]) Des pite the signal progress to date,([3]) the absolute number of children with ALL who have relapses still exceeds the number of children with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia, medulloblastoma and osteosarco ma. In the Children's Cancer Group (CCG) experience, approximately one -half of relapses still derive from the two-thirds of patients with fa vorable presenting features and one-half of relapses from the one-thir d of patients with unfavorable presenting features. Childhood ALL cont inues to contribute greatly to the overall morbidity and mortality of childhood cancer.