Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which is also known as ALL, is a disorder that arises from some of the cells in the bone marrow. This type of cancer causes the bone marrow to make too many lymphoblasts, which are cells that are precursors to white blood cells. A variety of treatments can be used for this type of cancer.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is commonly used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia in adults. Chemotherapy uses medications that are toxic to the cancerous cells in the bone marrow. As the University of California San Francisco Medical Center explains, there are several different phases to chemotherapy. The first stage, also known as inductive chemotherapy, uses a combination of chemotherapy drugs. Several different medications, including vincristine, daunorubicin, asparaginase, prednisone and cyclophosphamide are commonly used. After the induction phase, a less intensive round of chemotherapy treatment, known as consolidation therapy, is typically used; this round of treatment uses many of the same chemotherapy medicines. Afterward, many patients receive maintenance chemotherapy, which involves the daily use of low doses of compounds which poison the cancerous cells in the bone marrow. This helps keep the cancer from coming back.
Radiation
Although radiation treatment is not commonly used for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, there are some situations in which it is used, the American Cancer Society explains. Radiation can be used to treat ALL that has spread to the brain. It can also be used to shrink tumors which are pressing on the windpipe or are causing bone pain. Radiation therapy can also be used as part of another important treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a bone marrow transplant.
Bone Marrow Transplant
Some cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia can be treated using a bone marrow transplant, the National Marrow Donor Program explains. With this type of treatment, the cells in the patient's bone marrow are completely destroyed using high doses of chemotherapy and/or radiation. The patient then receives a bone marrow transplant, which can either be from cells harvested from the patient's marrow before the treatment or from a donor. The bone marrow stem cells will then traffic to the bones and repopulate the bone marrow with normal blood stem cells.
Targeted Therapies
Targeted therapies are treatment approaches that can be used for cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia with specific genetic abnormalities. For example, some patients have a fusion of two blocks of genetic material called chromosomes, which can cause a specific genetic phenomenon called the Philadelphia chromosome. The American Cancer Society notes that between 25 and 30 percent of all cases of ALL result from this genetic abnormality. Patients with a Philadelphia chromosome can be treated using drugs that specifically target cells with the Philadelphia chromosome. Two examples of these drugs are imatinib and dasatinib. These medications are highly effective and typically produce fewer side effects than other kinds of treatment.
