Blinatumomab for infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Infant Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in infants under 12 months of age accounts for about 4% of childhood ALL and differs from ALL in older children with respect to immunophenotypic, cytogenetic and molecular genetic features. In contrast to the predominance of male sex in older children with ALL, there is a slight predominance of girls in infant ALL (1). In infant leukemia, all necessary genetic...

Advancements in Therapy for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: Blinatumomab

© 2016 Harborside Press® Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a rare form of leukemia, with an estimated 6,250 new cases diagnosed in the United States in 2015 and approximately 1,450 deaths (American Cancer Society, 2015). With current available induction therapies, complete remission (CR) rates in adults are approximately 75% to 90% (Faderl et al., 2010; Bassan & Hoelzer, 2011). After induct...

Simultaneous Neuroblastoma and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in an Infant

Clinical use of blinatumomab for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in adults

Adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia have a dismal prognosis with a short median overall survival that can be measured in months. Because most patients will have chemotherapy-resistant disease, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation remains the only potentially curative treatment. Despite advances in current management, patients continue to have poo...

The evolution of clinical trials for infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in infants has a significantly inferior outcome in comparison with older children. Despite initial improvements in survival of infants with ALL since establishment of the first pediatric cooperative group ALL trials, the poor outcome has plateaued in recent years. Historically, infants were treated on risk-adapted childhood ALL protocols. These studies were pi...