The main treatment for ALL is chemotherapy, depending on the patient enrolled there are a number of drugs given in different combinations. Chemotherapy usually works well for children and young adults with ALL. But we know from research that it is important to look at the risk of the leukaemia coming back after treatment (relapse) and plan treatment based on this risk. This means giving less treatment to people with a low risk of their leukaemia coming back. And giving more treatment to people with a higher risk of the leukaemia coming back.
The trial use several factors to find out patients risk groups which determines the treatment they receive, these include:
- gene changes inside the leukaemia cells
- how quickly leukaemia went away with chemotherapy