The changing survivorship of white and black children with leukemia.

A study was conducted in metropolitan Baltimore to examine changes in survival of white and black children with acute leukemia from 1960 through 1975. Two-hundred eighty-seven cases were identified, of which 77% were acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). Eighty-three percent of all cases occurred in white children. In white children with ALL, two-year survival rates increased from 32% in 1960--64 to 47% in 1965--69, and to 79% in 1970--75 (p less than .005). In the small sample of black children with ALL, two-year survival rates increased from 25% in 1960--64 to 59% in 1965--69 (p less than .01), with no further increase in 1970--75. For acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL), survivorship was analyzed in white children, among whom one-year survival rates increased from 42% in 1965--69 to 71% in 1970--75 (p less than .005). The increasingly better survival over time of white children with acute leukemia probably reflects the increasing efficacy of new therapeutic approaches.