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Encyclopedia of Cancer pp 1–5Cite as

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

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Synonyms

ALL

Definition

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a malignant disease that arises from several cooperative genetic mutations in a single B- or T-lymphoid progenitor, leading to altered blast cell proliferation, survival, and maturation and eventually to the lethal accumulation of leukemic cells. Although cases can be subclassified further according to the multiple stages of T- or B-cell maturation, these distinctions are not therapeutically useful.

Characteristics

ALL accounts for about 12 % of all childhood and adult leukemias diagnosed in developed countries and for 60 % of those diagnosed in persons younger than 20 years. It is the most common cancer in children (25 % of all cases) and has a peak incidence in patients between the ages of 2 and 5 years, with a second, smaller peak in the elderly.

The factors predisposing children and adults to ALL remain largely unknown. Children with certain constitutional genetic abnormalities (e.g., trisomy 21) are at increased risk of...

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References

  • Pui C-H, Campana D, Pei D et al (2009) Treating childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia without cranial irradiation. N Engl J Med 360:2730–27412

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  • Pui C-H, Pei D, Coustan-Smith E et al (2015a) Clinical utility of sequential minimal residual disease measurements in the context of risk-directed therapy in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: a prospective study. Lancet Oncol 16:465–474

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  • Pui C-H, Yang JJ, Hunger SP et al (2015b) Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia: progress through collaboration. J Clin Oncol 33:2938–2948

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  • Roberts KG, Mullighan CG (2015) Genomics in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: insights and treatment implications. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 12:344–357

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  • Zhang J, Walsh MF, Wu G et al (2015) Germline mutations in predisposition genes in pediatric cancer. N Engl J Med 373:2336–2346

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See Also

  • (2012) Dasatinib. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1060. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_1518

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  • (2012) Extramedullary. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1366. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_2074

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  • (2012) Karyotype. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1941. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_3200

    Google Scholar 

  • (2012) Remission. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 3225. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_5020

    Google Scholar 

  • (2012) Sanctuary site. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 3334. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_5154

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA

    Ching-Hon Pui

Authors
  1. Ching-Hon Pui
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ching-Hon Pui .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Abt. Tumorgenetik, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany

    Manfred Schwab

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Pui, CH. (2015). Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_57-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_57-5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27841-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
    Published:
    08 February 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_57-5

  2. Original

    Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
    Published:
    24 November 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_57-4

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