Classification and prognosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

It is clear that a substantial percentage of both children and adults with ALL are currently being cured with appropriate treatment. Certain clinical characteristics and the morphology and biologic features of the lymphoblast at diagnosis can be used to identify those patients who are likely to be long-term disease-free survivors with current therapy and those who need new therapeutic approaches (Table VIII). It is hoped that continued studies, such as described in this review, will allow even better separation of good and poor responders. Such identification and separation will, it is hoped, allow the good responders to be cured with minimal toxicity and the poor responders to benefit from new therapies that may allow them too to be cured.