Early Diagnosis and Targeted Treatment of Very High-Risk Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia – The I-BFM Approach

We recently demonstrated that acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients with a persistently high post-consolidation minimal residual disease (MRD) load during high-risk (HR) treatment were neither curable by chemotherapy alone nor by stem cell transplantation. Therefore, we aim at early identification of VHRL patients and their subsequent rational treatment based on the exploration of treatment targets. We present data on gene expression profiling of VHRL patients performed in parallel to the ongoing extensive MRD analysis. In addition, non-VHRL patients were profiled. Comparing VHRL patients to the entire gro…