Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, ALL for short, is the most common form of blood cancer in children and adolescents. The prognosis for ALL has already been improved considerably as a result of international trials and various risk factors have been identified that are important for patients’ prospects of recovery.
The aim of this trial is to find the best possible therapy for patients in all risk groups, using the principle “as much as necessary, as little as possible”. This means that therapy should be intensive enough to prevent a recurrence of the leukaemia, but no more intensive than is absolutely necessary to avoid side effects as far as possible.
The patients will therefore be assigned to different groups with a different probability of recurrence on the basis of the previously mentioned risk factors. Assignment will be carried out using laboratory findings that provide information about the characteristics of each patient’s leukaemia. These characteristics will continue to be studied during therapy to ensure that each patient is still assigned to the correct group. In some of these treatment groups, the patients are given new medicines in addition to the standard therapy in order to test their effectiveness. This enables the advantages and disadvantages of the new medicines to be compared directly and the therapy to be further improved for future patients.
In short
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The study is investigating new therapeutic concepts against acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), the most common form of leukaemia in children and adolescents. To this end, it will compare new treatment concepts with the existing standard treatment in terms of their efficacy.
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The study is required in order to improve the recovery rate and reduce the side effects of treatment.
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If these new therapeutic approaches prove to be well tolerated and effective, it will then be possible to refine leukaemia treatments for future patients.