[10-year analysis (1969-1978) of the results of treating children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia--therapeutic...

The paper deals with the increasing improvement of results obtained in treating acute lymphocytic leukemia in childhood on the basis of own patients (55 children admitted to hospital from 1969 to 1978). The assessment of the results is made by life table analysis according to the method of Cutler and Ederer. In the group of patients with a low risk more than half the children in stable first remission will exceed the 5-year limit after being diagnosed. In the group of patients with a high risk the results are significantly worse and require an intensification of the initial therapy step by step by using an aggressive initial stroke of treatment which is taken into consideration in the last protocol of therapy elaborated by the working committee for paediatric haematology and oncology in the paediatric society of GDR.