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Cranial Radiotherapy in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Assessing its impact on relapse risk

Publish date:: January 20, 2016

Cranial radiotherapy (CRT) does not have an impact on the risk of relapse in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated on contemporary protocols, according to a study of 16,623 patients aged 1 to 18 years with newly diagnosed ALL. Researchers found:

Although there was significant heterogeneity in all outcome end points according to trial, CRT was associated with a reduced risk of relapse only in the small subgroup of patients with overt CNS disease at diagnosis, who had significantly lower risk of isolated CNS relapse (4% with CRT, 17% without), and a trend toward lower risk of any CNS relapse (7% with CRT, 17% without).

But, that group had a relatively high rate of events regardless of whether they did (32%) or did not (39%) receive CRT.

Citation: Vora A, Andreano A, Pui CH, et al. Influence of cranial radiotherapy on outcome in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia treated with contemporary therapy. [Published online ahead of print January 11, 2016]. J Clin Oncol. doi:10.1200/JCO.2015.64.2850.

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