The patient is then given high-dose chemotherapy with or without radiation therapy to destroy all of the remaining marrow. The frozen marrow that was saved is thawed and given through a needle in a vein to replace the marrow that was destroyed. The first phase, remission induction therapy, uses chemotherapy to kill as many of the leukemia cells as possible to cause the cancer to go into remission. Radiation therapy to the brain may also be given, in addition to chemotherapy, for this purpose. Once a child goes into remission and there are no signs of leukemia, a third phase of treatment called consolidation or intensification therapy, is given.
Consolidation therapy uses high-dose chemotherapy to attempt to kill any remaining leukemia cells.
The fourth phase of treatment, called maintenance therapy, uses chemotherapy for several years to maintain the remission. Treatment by Stage Treatment for childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia depends on the prognostic group to which your child is assigned based primarily on your child's age and white blood cell count at diagnosis. Your child may receive treatment that is considered standard based on its effectiveness in a number of patients in past studies, or you may choose to have your child take part in a clinical trial. Not all patients are cured with standard therapy and some standard treatments may have more side effects than are desired. For these reasons, clinical trials are designed to test new treatments and to find better ways to treat cancer patients.