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Acute
Lymphocytic Leukemia
Acute
Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer occurring
in children, representing 23% of cancer diagnoses among children
younger than 15 years and occurring at an annual rate of
approximately 30 to 40 per million.
There are approximately 2,400 children and adolescents
diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia each year in the
United States.
Peak
incidence of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia occurs at age of 2-3
years with approximately 4-fold greater than that for infants
and is nearly 10-fold greater than that for children who are 19
years old.
The
incidence of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia is substantially higher
for white children than for black children, with a nearly 3-fold
higher incidence at 2 to 3 years for white children compared to
black children. The incidence of ALL appears to be highest in
Hispanic children (43 per million).
There
are few identified factors associated with increased risk of
Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia -
The
primary accepted non-genetic risk factors for ALL are prenatal
exposure to x-rays and postnatal exposure to high doses of
radiation.
Increased
occurrence of ALL is also associated with certain genetic
conditions:
-
Down
syndrome
-
Ataxia
telangiectasia
-
Bloom
syndrome
-
Neurofibromatosis
-
Shwachman
syndrome
Certain
cases of ALL that develop in children may have a prenatal
origin. There is also data that shows patients with ALL have
specific chromosomal translocations have blood cells carrying
the translocation at the time of birth.
Despite
the treatment advances noted in childhood ALL, numerous
important biologic and therapeutic questions remain to be
answered in order to achieve the goal of curing every child with
ALL
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