Clinical trials are testing new ways of inducing remission. ALL in remission Remission means that treatment has been given and that the numbers of white blood cells and other blood cells in the blood and bone marrow are normal. There are no signs or symptoms of leukemia. The child s treatment will probably be intensive chemotherapy to kill any remaining cancer cells. Following intensification therapy, chemotherapy generally continues until the child has been in continuous remission for several years.
Refractory disease means that the leukemia has failed to go into remission following treatment.
Treatment depends on the type of treatment the child received before, how soon the cancer came back following treatment, and whether leukemia cells are found outside the bone marrow. The child s treatment will probably be systemic or intrathecal chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or bone marrow transplantation. Parents may want to consider entering their child into a clinical trial of new chemotherapy drugs or bone marrow transplantation. There are generally four phases of treatment for childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia, each of which has a specific purpose. The first phase is called remission induction therapy .