ABSTRACT
Introduction 984 Acute lymphoid leukemia in infancy 984 Prognostic factors 985 Cytogenetics 985 Immunophenotype 985 Early response 985 Treatment protocols for infant acute lymphoid leukemia 986 Role of stem cell transplantation in infant acute 990
lymphoid leukemia
Pharmacology of infant dosing 992 Epidemiology of infant leukemia 992 Late effects in infant acute lymphoid leukemia 993 Supportive care 994 Future directions 994 Key points 995 References 995
Malignancy in the first year of life is a rare yet biologically intriguing event. Lymphomas, such as Hodgkin disease and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, are essentially nonexistent; thus, in infancy, acute lymphoid leukemia is by far the most common lymphoid malignancy. Infantile acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL) represents only 4 percent of childhood ALL with an annual incidence of 20 per one million infants at risk and a slight predominance of girls.1-4,5 The incidence of ALL is nearly double that of acute nonlymphoid leukemia during the first year of life.6,7 Acute lymphoid leukemia in infancy differs significantly from ALL in older children, not only in presentation but also in prognostic factors, response to therapy, and outcome.
