Chemotherapy of acute myelocytic leukemia in children.

Acute myelocytic leukemia (AML) in both children and adults is a more complex and resistant disease than acute lymphocytic leukemia. Progress has been slower and therapy more complicated, but with intensive myelosuppressive induction and further postremission therapy one-third of such patients may now achieve longterm survival and probably be cured.’-5 In the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) hospital services are, in principle, free to all citizens. Private hospitals are very few, and “lost to follow-up” patients a rarity. These countries offer, therefore, a unique possibility for performing population-based studies and to trace patients for followup. The Nordic Society of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology (NOPHO) was established in 1981, and we now have documented information on every case of any childhood acute leukemia in a population of 23 million inhabitants. Examples will be drawn from our experience during the last decade! The major focus of this chapter will be on therapy, but a brief review of epidemiology and biology will be given as a background.