Prognosis and treatment after relapse of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: 1985. A report from the Childrens Cancer Study Group.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma constitute 42% to 45% of the cancers in infants, children, and adolescents: In 1985, an estimated 2025 children were newly diagnosed with these two cancers and 900 (43%) of the pediatric cancer deaths in the United States have been projected to be due to these diseases. The single most important obstacle to preventing these deaths is relapse, and prevention of relapse or salvage of the patient who has had a relapse continues to be a major therapeutic challenge. The most important initial step in the treatment of the child whose disease has relapsed is to determine, to the extent possible, the prognosis. In a child with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a relapse confers an extremely poor prognosis, regardless of site of relapse, tumor histology, or other original prognostic factors, prior therapy, or time to relapse. In the child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in relapse, the prognosis depends on multiple factors. The primary therapy is chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy with marrow grafting. Other options exist, including no therapy, or investigational therapy. The therapy selected should be predicated on the prognosis. In the child with an isolated central nervous system (CNS) relapse off therapy, minimum therapy should be administered, particularly if the relapse occurred without prior cranial irradiation. In the child whose relapse is more than 6 months off therapy, conventional therapy should be considered. Also, a patient with an isolated CNS relapse on therapy after prior cranial irradiation should be given moderate therapy. Bone marrow transplantation or high-dose chemoradiotherapy with autologous marrow rescue should be reserved in children with a second or subsequent extramedullary relapse, and possibly for those with a first isolated overt testicular relapse on therapy.