[Central nervous system irradiation for children with leukemia]

Between 1972 and 1981, 247 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia were treated with prophylactic CNS irradiation. Cranial irradiation (2400 rad) plus intrathecal methotrexate was the prophylactic CNS therapy of choice. At 5 years, the overall, relapse-free and CNS relapse-free survival rates were 51%, 47% and 79%, respectively. Our findings suggest that more attention should be paid to the inferior border of the radiation field, since the anterior and middle cranial fossae were sometimes not included and the second spine was almost always excluded.