Pharmacology and drug resistance in childhood lymphoblastic leukemia.

In the first part of this article, the pharmacology of the chemotherapeutic agents used in the treatment of childhood lymphoblastic leukemia is reviewed, detailing their mechanisms of action, pharmacokinetics, and toxicities. A section on central nervous system pharmacology discusses advances made in the treatment of meningeal leukemia. Mechanisms of drug resistance are discussed in the second section of the article, outlining the biochemical basis for and clinical implications of both agent-specific resistance and multidrug resistance.