The challenge of deintensifying chemotherapy for children and adolescents with B-ALL in the immunotherapy era
Recent clinical trials have shown that the addition of immunotherapy has substantially improved cure rates for children and adolescents newly diagnosed with B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Most of these patients now have outcomes similar to those previously seen in only the most favorable subgroups. As such, efforts are underway to study whether the incorporation of immunotherapy can allow for elements of traditional toxic chemotherapy to be removed while maintaining excellent outcomes. In this article, we discuss important considerations for such studies, including those related to which patients are appropriate targets of deintensification efforts and which elements of therapy are or are not appropriate candidates for omission.
Authors
- David T. Teachey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7373-8987)
- Rachel E. Rau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4096-6603)
- Jennifer L. McNeer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4743-6325)
- Maureen M. O’Brien (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9054-4321)
- Sumit Gupta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1334-3670)
Institutions
- Primary Children's Hospital (US)
- Cape Town HVTN Immunology Laboratory / Hutchinson Centre Research Institute of South Africa (ZA)
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (US)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Hospital for Sick Children (CA)
- Fred Hutch Cancer Center (US)
- Children's Hospital Colorado (US)
- Seattle Children's Hospital (US)
- Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders (US)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- University of Colorado Denver (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Hematology
- Published
- 2025-12-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1182/hematology.2025000709
- Primary Topic
- Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00