Physical development in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in childhood

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is one of the readily treatable neoplastic diseases of childhood. One of the late sequelae of treatment can be impaired growth. The authors followed up therefore a group of 63 patients where during childhood a diagnosis of ALL was made. The investigated group was treated according to two fundamental protocols--according to Pinkel's protocol and according to BMF protocols. All patients treated according to Pinkel's protocol had, as part of prevention of leukaemia of the CNS, radiotherapy of the skull, patients treated according to the BMF protocol only when the risk factor was higher than 0.8. The authors investigated in their patients the height and proportionality after termination of all antileukaemic therapy. They found that the height of children, adolescents and adults who suffered from ALL during childhood is average or less. A tendency towards obesity is typical. The authors did not observe a correlation with the total cumulative doses of cytostatics nor a marked correlation with radiotherapy. Impaired growth was more frequent when ALL was diagnosed before the age of 3 years and where the interval after completed therapy was shorter.