Solving the Adult Leukemia Mystery

When my brother Ed got sick (three years ago this March) we were initially optimistic. The Internet surfing I did in the wee hours after receiving a call from my sister-in-law indicated that his type of leukemia (A.L.L., or 'Acute Lypmphocytic Leukemia') had a very high cure rate (90%).

What we discovered a little later was a chart showing how that broke down by age. Because the vast majority of people who contract ALL are kids, the cure rates reflect their unique physiology and responsiveness to treatment.

The age group with the lowest incidence of A.L.L. is the group that my brother was in (35-39). It is also, we discovered, one of the groups with the lowest cure rate. But because the incidence numbers are so low, the cure rate is almost meaningless statistically.

Opening up my copy of the Dana-Farber magazine recently, I was pleased to see that Ed's lead oncologist Dr. Dan DeAngelo (a real 'rock-star' of a physician and human being -- in all respects) is helping to lead a study into precisely the mystery that killed my brother: why adults die of this thing that the vast majority of kids ultimately survive.

Here's study lead Dr. Stephen E. Sallan:

The early results suggest that cure rates for adults will be much better than in the past, hopefully comparable to those of the older children. Our larger study hopes to build on these results; I believe we are on our way to debunking the asparaginase myth, and hopefully curing more patients.

This much we know: If you are under 21 and you have ALL, you should be on a pediatric-type protocol. All the studies show it is going to double your chances of being alive. What we don't know about is the rest of the population. Is there something fundamentally different about our biological makeup when we're 30 or 40 or 50 that's different from when we're 10 or 20? Is there something different about the leukemia cell? Is there something different about the treatment regimen? Finally, is there something about being a pediatrician or an internist that is fundamentally different in either who we are or how we practice? That's a big mystery, and a key reason why our study covers people up to age 51.

At the end of five years, we hope to have the answers to all of these questions.

This kind of research is important. Won't you help continue it?