Comparison of Chemotherapy and Autologous and Allogeneic Transplantation as Postinduction Regimen in Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: a Preliminary Multicentric Study

The results of chemotherapy in adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have improved in recent years but have lagged behind those in children with ALL [1, 2]. The overall probability of achieving complete remission (CR) exceeds 75%, and it now appears that approximately 35% of patients achieving CR can be cured using chemotherapy alone [2, 3]. It is therefore appropriate to study alternative forms of treatment such as allogeneic or autologous bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in adult ALL.