[Influence of remission induction therapy on the further outcome of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children (author's transl)].

An analysis of 66 children with ALL treated during the last 10 years shows an increase in medium survival time from 27.1 +/- 17.8 months to so far 39.3 +/- 15.1 months after the introduction of preventive CNS therapy. In the group with preventive CNS therapy both CNS relapses and hematological relapses are markedly reduced. Furthermore, in the group with preventive CNS therapy, patients initially treated with 3 drugs obviously survive longer than patients initially treated with only 2 drugs. Thus our study shows the importance of the quality of first remission for the further outcome of a patient with leukemia.