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Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a type of cancer in which the bone marrow makes too many immature lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell).
Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (also called ALL or acute lymphocytic leukemia) is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. This type of cancer usually gets worse quickly if it is not treated.
Anatomy of the bone. The bone is made up of compact bone, spongy bone, and bone marrow. Compact bone makes up the outer layer of the bone. Spongy bone is found mostly at the ends of bones and contains red marrow. Bone marrow is found in the center of most bones and has many blood vessels. There are two types of bone marrow: red and yellow. Red marrow contains blood stem cells that can become red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets. Yellow marrow is made mostly of fat.
ALL is the most common type of cancer in children.
Leukemia may affect red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.
In a healthy child, the bone marrow makes blood stem cells (immature cells) that become mature blood cells over time. A blood stem cell may become a myeloid stem cell or a lymphoid stem cell.
A myeloid stem cell becomes one of three types of mature blood cells:
A lymphoid stem cell becomes a lymphoblast cell and then one of three types of lymphocytes (white blood cells):
Blood cell development. A blood stem cell goes through several steps to become a red blood cell, platelet, or white blood cell.
In a child with ALL, too many stem cells become lymphoblasts, B lymphocytes, or T lymphocytes. These cells are also called leukemia cells. These leukemia cells do not work like normal lymphocytes and are not able to fight infection very well. Also, as the number of leukemia cells increases in the blood and bone marrow, there is less room for healthy white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. This may lead to infection, anemia, and easy bleeding.
This summary is about acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children, adolescents, and young adults. See the following PDQ summaries for information about other types of leukemia:
Past treatment for cancer and certain genetic conditions affect the risk of having childhood ALL.
Anything that increases your risk of getting a disease is called a risk factor. Having a risk factor does not mean that you will get cancer; not having risk factors doesn't mean that you will not get cancer. Talk with your child's doctor if you think your child may be at risk.
Possible risk factors for ALL include the following:
Signs of childhood ALL include fever and bruising.
These and other signs and symptoms may be caused by childhood ALL or by other conditions. Check with your child's doctor if your child has any of the following:
Tests that examine the blood and bone marrow are used to diagnose childhood ALL.
The following tests and procedures may be used to diagnose childhood ALL and find out if leukemia cells have spread to other parts of the body such as the brain or testicles:
The following tests are done on blood or the bone marrow tissue that is removed:
This procedure is done after leukemia is diagnosed to find out if leukemia cells have spread to the brain and spinal cord. Intrathecal chemotherapy is given after the sample of fluid is removed to treat any leukemia cells that may have spread to the brain and spinal cord.
Certain factors affect prognosis (chance of recovery) and treatment options.
The prognosis depends on:
Treatment options depend on:
For leukemia that relapses (comes back) after treatment, the prognosis and treatment options depend partly on the following:
In childhood ALL, risk groups are used to plan treatment.
There are three risk groups in childhood ALL. They are described as:
Other factors that affect the risk group include the following:
It is important to know the risk group in order to plan treatment. Children with high-risk or very high–risk ALL usually receive more anticancer drugs and/or higher doses of anticancer drugs than children with standard-risk ALL.
Sometimes childhood ALL does not respond to treatment or comes back after treatment.
Refractory childhood ALL is cancer that does not respond to initial treatment.
Recurrent childhood ALL is cancer that has recurred (come back) after it has been treated. The leukemia may come back in the blood and bone marrow, brain, spinal cord, testicles, or other parts of the body.
There are different types of treatment for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
Different types of treatment are available for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Some treatments are standard (the currently used treatment), and some are being tested in clinical trials. A treatment clinical trial is a research study meant to help improve current treatments or obtain information on new treatments for patients with cancer. When clinical trials show that a new treatment is better than the standard treatment, the new treatment may become the standard treatment.
Because cancer in children is rare, taking part in a clinical trial should be considered. Some clinical trials are open only to patients who have not started treatment.
Children with ALL should have their treatment planned by a team of doctors who are experts in treating childhood leukemia.
Treatment will be overseen by a pediatric oncologist, a doctor who specializes in treating children with cancer. The pediatric oncologist works with other pediatric health professionals who are experts in treating children with leukemia and who specialize in certain areas of medicine. These may include the following specialists:
The treatment of childhood ALL usually has three phases.
The treatment of childhood ALL is done in phases:
Four types of standard treatment are used:
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses drugs to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. When chemotherapy is taken by mouth or injected into a vein or muscle, the drugs enter the bloodstream and can reach cancer cells throughout the body (systemic chemotherapy). When chemotherapy is placed directly into the cerebrospinal fluid (intrathecal), an organ, or a body cavity such as the abdomen, the drugs mainly affect cancer cells in those areas (regional chemotherapy). Combination chemotherapy is treatment using more than one anticancer drug.
The way the chemotherapy is given depends on the child's risk group. Children with high-risk ALL receive more anticancer drugs and higher doses of anticancer drugs than children with standard-risk ALL. Intrathecal chemotherapy is used to treat childhood ALL that has spread, or may spread, to the brain and spinal cord.
See
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy is a cancer treatment that uses high-energy x-rays or other types of radiation to kill cancer cells or keep them from growing. External radiation therapy uses a machine outside the body to send radiation toward the area of the body with cancer.
External radiation therapy may be used to treat childhood ALL that has spread, or may spread, to the brain, spinal cord, or testicles. It may also be used to prepare the bone marrow for a stem cell transplant.
Chemotherapy with stem cell transplant
Chemotherapy is given to kill cancer cells. In children 3 years and older, total-body irradiation is given with chemotherapy. Healthy cells, including blood-forming cells, are also destroyed by the cancer treatment. Stem cell transplant is a treatment to replace the blood-forming cells. Stem cells (immature blood cells) are removed from the blood or bone marrow of a donor and are frozen and stored. After the patient completes chemotherapy and radiation therapy, the stored stem cells are thawed and given to the patient through an infusion. These stem cells grow into (and restore) the body's blood cells.
Stem cell transplant is rarely used as initial treatment for children and adolescents with ALL. It is used more often as part of treatment for ALL that relapses (comes back after treatment).
See
Stem cell transplant. (Step 1): Blood is taken from a vein in the arm of the donor. The blood flows through a machine that removes the stem cells. Then the blood is returned to the donor through a vein in the other arm. (Step 2): The patient receives chemotherapy to kill blood-forming cells. The patient may receive radiation therapy (not shown). (Step 3): The patient receives stem cells through a catheter placed into a blood vessel in the chest.
Targeted therapy
Targeted therapy is a type of treatment that uses drugs or other substances to identify and attack specific cancer cells. Targeted therapies usually cause less harm to normal cells than chemotherapy or radiation therapy do. There are different types of targeted therapy:
New kinds of targeted therapies are also being studied in the treatment of childhood ALL.
See
Treatment is given to kill leukemia cells that have spread or may spread to the brain, spinal cord, or testicles.
Treatment to kill leukemia cells or prevent the spread of leukemia cells to the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system; CNS) is called CNS-directed therapy. Chemotherapy may be used to treat leukemia cells that have spread, or may spread, to the brain and spinal cord. Because standard doses of chemotherapy may not cross the blood-brain barrier to get into the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord to reach the leukemia cells in the CNS, the cells are able to hide in the CNS. Systemic chemotherapy given in high doses or intrathecal chemotherapy (into the cerebrospinal fluid) is able to reach leukemia cells in the CNS. Sometimes external radiation therapy to the brain is also given.
Intrathecal chemotherapy. Anticancer drugs are injected into the intrathecal space, which is the space that holds the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF, shown in blue). There are two different ways to do this. One way, shown in the top part of the figure, is to inject the drugs into an Ommaya reservoir (a dome-shaped container that is placed under the scalp during surgery; it holds the drugs as they flow through a small tube into the brain). The other way, shown in the bottom part of the figure, is to inject the drugs directly into the CSF in the lower part of the spinal column, after a small area on the lower back is numbed.
These treatments are given in addition to treatment that is used to kill leukemia cells in the rest of the body. All children with ALL receive CNS-directed therapy as part of induction therapy and consolidation/intensification therapy and sometimes during maintenance therapy.
If the leukemia cells spread to the testicles, treatment includes high doses of systemic chemotherapy and sometimes radiation therapy.
New types of treatment are being tested in clinical trials.
This summary section describes treatments that are being studied in clinical trials. It may not mention every new treatment being studied. Information about clinical trials is available from the
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is a treatment that uses the patient's immune system to fight cancer. Substances made by the body or made in a laboratory are used to boost, direct, or restore the body's natural defenses against cancer. This cancer treatment is a type of biologic therapy.
CAR T-cell therapy. A type of treatment in which a patient's T cells (a type of immune cell) are changed in the laboratory so they will bind to cancer cells and kill them. Blood from a vein in the patient's arm flows through a tube to an apheresis machine (not shown), which removes the white blood cells, including the T cells, and sends the rest of the blood back to the patient. Then, the gene for a special receptor called a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) is inserted into the T cells in the laboratory. Millions of the CAR T cells are grown in the laboratory and then given to the patient by infusion. The CAR T cells are able to bind to an antigen on the cancer cells and kill them.
Treatment for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia may cause side effects.
To learn more about side effects that begin during treatment for cancer, visit
Regular follow-up exams are very important. Side effects from cancer treatment that begin after treatment and continue for months or years are called late effects.
Late effects of cancer treatment may include the following:
Some late effects may be treated or controlled. It is important to talk with your child's doctors about the possible late effects caused by some treatments. See the PDQ summary on Late Effects of Treatment for Childhood Cancer.
Patients may want to think about taking part in a clinical trial.
For some patients, taking part in a clinical trial may be the best treatment choice. Clinical trials are part of the cancer research process. Clinical trials are done to find out if new cancer treatments are safe and effective or better than the standard treatment.
Many of today's standard treatments for cancer are based on earlier clinical trials. Patients who take part in a clinical trial may receive the standard treatment or be among the first to receive a new treatment.
Patients who take part in clinical trials also help improve the way cancer will be treated in the future. Even when clinical trials do not lead to effective new treatments, they often answer important questions and help move research forward.
Patients can enter clinical trials before, during, or after starting their cancer treatment.
Some clinical trials only include patients who have not yet received treatment. Other trials test treatments for patients whose cancer has not gotten better. There are also clinical trials that test new ways to stop cancer from recurring (coming back) or reduce the side effects of cancer treatment.
Clinical trials are taking place in many parts of the country. Information about clinical trials supported by NCI can be found on NCI's
Follow-up tests may be needed.
As your child goes through treatment, they will have follow-up tests or check-ups. Some tests that were done to diagnose or stage the cancer may be repeated to see how well the treatment is working. Decisions about whether to continue, change, or stop treatment may be based on the results of these tests.
Some of the tests will continue to be done from time to time after treatment has ended. The results of these tests can show if your child's condition has changed or if the cancer has recurred (come back).
Bone marrow aspiration and biopsy is done during all phases of treatment to see how well the treatment is working.
For information about the treatments listed below, see the Treatment Option Overview section.
The treatment of newly diagnosed standard-risk childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) during the remission induction, consolidation /intensification, and maintenance phases always includes combination chemotherapy. When children with a poor response to treatment are in remission after remission induction therapy, a stem cell transplant using stem cells from a donor may be done. When children with a poor response to treatment are not in remission after remission induction therapy, further treatment is usually the same treatment given to children with high-risk ALL.
Intrathecal chemotherapy is given to prevent the spread of leukemia cells to the brain and spinal cord.
Treatments being studied in clinical trials for standard-risk ALL include combination chemotherapy with or without targeted therapy with a monoclonal antibody (blinatumomab).
Use our
For information about the treatments listed below, see the Treatment Option Overview section.
The treatment of newly diagnosed high-risk childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) during the remission induction, consolidation /intensification, and maintenance phases always includes combination chemotherapy. Children in the high-risk ALL group are given more anticancer drugs and higher doses of anticancer drugs, especially during the consolidation/intensification phase, than children in the standard-risk group.
Intrathecal and systemic chemotherapy are given to prevent or treat the spread of leukemia cells to the brain and spinal cord. Sometimes radiation therapy to the brain is also given.
Treatments being studied in clinical trials for high-risk ALL include new chemotherapy regimens with or without targeted therapy or stem cell transplant. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is also being studied.
Use our
For information about the treatments listed below, see the Treatment Option Overview section.
The treatment of newly diagnosed very high–risk childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) during the remission induction, consolidation /intensification, and maintenance phases always includes combination chemotherapy. Children in the very high–risk ALL group are given more anticancer drugs than children in the high-risk group. It is not clear whether a stem cell transplant during first remission will help the child live longer.
Intrathecal and systemic chemotherapy are given to prevent or treat the spread of leukemia cells to the brain and spinal cord. Sometimes radiation therapy to the brain is also given.
Treatments being studied in clinical trials for very high–risk ALL include new chemotherapy regimens with or without targeted therapy.
Use our
For information about the treatments listed below, see the Treatment Option Overview section.
T-cell childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia
The treatment of newly diagnosed T-cell childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) during the remission induction, consolidation /intensification, and maintenance phases always includes combination chemotherapy. Children with T-ALL are given more anticancer drugs and higher doses of anticancer drugs than children in the newly diagnosed standard-risk group.
Intrathecal and systemic chemotherapy are given to prevent or treat the spread of leukemia cells to the brain and spinal cord. Sometimes radiation therapy to the brain is also given.
Infants with ALL
The treatment of infants with newly diagnosed ALL during the remission induction, consolidation /intensification, and maintenance phases always includes combination chemotherapy. Infants with ALL are given different anticancer drugs and higher doses of anticancer drugs than children 1 year and older in the standard-risk group. It is not clear whether a stem cell transplant during first remission will help the child live longer.
Intrathecal and systemic chemotherapy are given to prevent or treat the spread of leukemia cells to the brain and spinal cord.
Children 10 years and older and adolescents with ALL
The treatment of newly diagnosed ALL in children and adolescents (10 years and older) during the remission induction, consolidation /intensification, and maintenance phases always includes combination chemotherapy. Children 10 years and older and adolescents with ALL are given more anticancer drugs and higher doses of anticancer drugs than children in the standard-risk group.
Intrathecal and systemic chemotherapy are given to prevent or treat the spread of leukemia cells to the brain and spinal cord. Sometimes radiation therapy to the brain is also given.
Treatments being studied in clinical trials for children 10 years and older and adolescents with ALL include new anticancer agents and chemotherapy regimens with or without targeted therapy. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is also being studied.
Philadelphia chromosome–positive ALL
The treatment of newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome –positive childhood ALL during the remission induction, consolidation /intensification, and maintenance phases may include the following:
Intrathecal and systemic chemotherapy are given to prevent or treat the spread of leukemia cells to the brain and spinal cord.
Treatments being studied in clinical trials for Philadelphia chromosome–positive childhood ALL include a new regimen of targeted therapy (imatinib mesylate) and combination chemotherapy with or without a stem cell transplant.
Use our
For information about the treatments listed below, see the Treatment Option Overview section.
Standard treatment of relapsed childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that comes back in the bone marrow may include the following:
There is no standard treatment for the treatment of refractory childhood ALL.
Other treatments for refractory or relapsed childhood ALL may include the following:
Standard treatment of relapsed childhood ALL that comes back outside the bone marrow may include the following:
Some of the treatments being studied in clinical trials for relapsed childhood ALL include:
For more information from the National Cancer Institute about childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, see the following:
For more childhood cancer information and other general cancer resources, visit:
About PDQ
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This PDQ cancer information summary has current information about the treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It is meant to inform and help patients, families, and caregivers. It does not give formal guidelines or recommendations for making decisions about health care.
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Clinical trials can be found online at
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PDQ® Pediatric Treatment Editorial Board. PDQ Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Treatment. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute. Updated <MM/DD/YYYY>. Available at:
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Last Revised: 2022-09-02
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