Improved outcome for children with non-high risk acute lymphoblastic leukaemia after using an ALL IC-BFM 2002-based...

We report the outcome of 92 non-high risk children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) following a Berlin-Frankfürt-Münster (BFM) Intercontinental ALL -based protocol. Compared with a matched historical control group, we found a lower incidence of treatment-related early death (1·2% vs. 10·9%, P = 0·015), a higher 6-year event-free survival (75·4 ± 4·9% vs. 58·2 ± 6·7%, P = 0·02), reduced total in-hospital costs per person (US $) (10267·0 vs. 18331·0, P < 0·001) and fewer total in-hospital days (164 vs. 296, P < 0·001). This ALL-BFM based protocol was quite tolerable in our institution and will be extended to high-risk patients.