Certain features of a child's leukemia, such as age and initial white blood cell count, are used in determining the intensity of treatment needed to achieve the best chance for cure. Although all children with ALL are treated with chemotherapy, the dosages and drug combinations may differ.
To decrease the chance that leukemia will invade the child's central nervous system, patients receive intrathecal chemotherapy, the administration of cancer-killing drugs into the cerebrospinal fluid around the brain and spinal cord. Radiation treatments, which use high-energy rays to shrink tumors and keep cancer cells from growing, may be used in addition to intrathecal chemotherapy for certain high-risk patients. Children then require continued close monitoring by a pediatric oncologist, a specialist in childhood cancer.
After treatment begins, the goal is remission of the leukemia (when there is no longer evidence of cancer cells in the body). Once remission has occurred, maintenance chemotherapy is usually used to keep the child in remission. Maintenance chemotherapy is given in cycles over a period of 2 to 3 years to keep the cancer from reoccurring. Leukemia will almost always relapse (reoccur) if this additional chemotherapy isn't given. Sometimes the cancer will return in spite of maintenance chemotherapy, and other forms of chemotherapy will then be necessary.
Sometimes a bone marrow transplant may be necessary in addition to - or instead of - chemotherapy, depending on the type of leukemia a child has. During a bone marrow transplant, healthy bone marrow is introduced into a child's body.
Intensive leukemia chemotherapy have certain side effects, including hair loss, nausea and vomiting in the short term, and potential health problems down the line. As your child is treated for leukemia, your child's cancer treatment team will monitor the child closely for those side effects.
But with the proper treatment, the outlook for kids who are diagnosed with leukemia is quite good. Some forms of childhood leukemia have a remission rate of up to 90%; all children then require regular maintenance chemotherapy and other treatment to continue to be cancer-free. Overall cure rates differ depending on the specific features of a child's disease. Most childhood leukemias have very high remission rates. And the majority of children can be cured - meaning that they are in permanent remission - of the disease.
For Further Reading,
