Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is categorized, for example, in children aged 2-7 years, and it can be categorized, by examination, as low-risk or intermediate-high-risk, and the low-risk type can be cured by chemotherapy, unlike acute myeloid leukemia, which can be cured by chemotherapy alone.
For some intermediate to high-risk types, or relapsed refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia, it can be treated with chemotherapy bone marrow remission followed by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; for adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the prognosis is relatively poor. Such patients are best treated with a hematopoietic stem cell transplant, which can be preceded by chemotherapy to put the disease into remission before proceeding with a hematopoietic stem cell transplant.
The course of chemotherapy is longer for adults, but of course some patients who are not eligible for HSCT can be treated with chemotherapy. There are now some targeted drugs, and some new immunotherapies, such as CAR-T, which is also an immunotherapy, and this therapy can extend the survival of patients.