Clinical and epidemiological features of acute lymphoblastic leukemia following a previous malignancy

Secondary malignancies represent a relevant complication of chemotherapy em ployed for a previous cancer. Acute leukemias represent the most frequent s econdary malignancy in the first decade following primary neoplasms: second ary leukemias are generally myeloid and can be preceeded by a myelodysplast ic syndrome. The biological and epidemiological characteristics of secondar y acute myeloid are well known and have been the subject of numerous report s and reviews in the last few years. The observation of a secondary acute l ymphoblastic leukemia is considered rare, and the correlation with antecede nt therapies is not definitive. Most of reported cases are single reports, and no large study has been performed to investigate the real importance of this problem. In this review we report data of the current literature on s econdary acute lymphoblastic leukemia, both in adults and children, in orde r to analyze its incidence and clinical and laboratory features.