Milestones in Pediatric Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia
An article on curing pediatric acute lymphocytic leukemia by Joseph V. Simone and these accompanying milestones were published in December 2008 as part of the special ASH anniversary brochure, 50 Years in Hematology: Research That Revolutionized Patient Care.
| 1948 | Sidney Farber treats leukemia with aminopterin, which blocks folic acid and becomes the first agent to cause remission in children with ALL. |
| 1950 | George Hitchings and Gertrude Elion develop 6-mercaptopurine to block DNA metabolism and kill rapidly growing leukemic cells. |
| 1950s | The first combination chemotherapy regimens are designed by Emil Frei, Emil Freireich, and James Holland. |
| 1960s | Criteria are established for the diagnosis of ALL. |
| The phases of therapy become recognized as important: remission induction, intensification, central nervous system therapy, and continuation (maintenance) therapy. | |
| New treatment drugs are introduced: vincristine, asparaginase, cytoxan, daunomycin, and cytosar. | |
| 1970s | Donald Pinkel develops a "total therapy" approach to prevent a relapse of the cancer in patients' central nervous systems (leukemic meningitis). |
| Supportive care, such as platelet transfusions and antibiotics, improve patient outcomes. | |
| 1975 | For the first time, ALL is classified into subtypes for better treatment strategies. |
| 1980s | About 50 percent of ALL patients become long-term survivors in much of the U.S. and Western Europe. |
| Cytogenetics (the study of chromosomes and cell division) emerges as a key tool in predicting outcome in ALL. | |
| 1998 | Researchers begin individualizing the dosage of chemotherapy to increase survival rates in children with ALL. |