Recent advances in management of acute leukaemia

There have been significant improvements in the outlook for children with a cute leukaemia but these advances are only available to a minority of the w orld's children. There is still room for improvements in conventional chemo therapy and need evaluation in randomised trials. The role of bone marrow t ransplants in first remission is evolving as chemotherapy becomes more effe ctive. New treatments are needed for relapsed patients. Molecular diagnosis has refined the assessment of prognosis but the extra value afforded by me asurement of minimal residual disease is not clear. International collabora tion is needed to evaluate treatment for rare subtypes of leukaemia.