[Age-related characteristics of the efficacy of different glucocorticosteroids in the therapy of acute lymphoblastic leukemia].

Aim: To determine predictors for decision-making on a differential approach to choosing glucocorticosteroids (GCS) for children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Subjects And Methods: The analysis covered 1064 primary patients aged to 1 to 18 years with ALL who had been registered at the clinics of Russia and Belorussia in April 2002 to November 2006. Before induction therapy, the patients were randomized into a dexamethasone (DEXA) 6 mg/m2 group (n=539) and a methylprednisolone (MePRED) 60 mg/m2 one (n=525).

Very early/early relapses of acute lymphoblastic leukemia show unexpected changes of clonal markers and high heterogeneity in response to initial and relapse treatment.

Minimal residual disease (MRD) quantified after induction treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) predicts risk of relapse. It has been assumed that early relapses derive from a residual population of leukemic cells, which is still present after induction and that relapsed disease will consequently be more resistant to treatment. To test these hypotheses, we performed a prospective study on patients treated according to the frontline-trial ALL-BFM 2000, which used MRD response for risk-group stratification.