Pharmacotherapy of acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review the outstanding current pharmacological treatment of the newly diagnosed pediatric patient. My goal was to analyze the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics of the drugs used as well as their common side effects. As the multi drug therapy can be associated with some severe cytotoxicities and relapses I was fascinated to explore how our own genes can influence the success of the treatment. In addition, a short chapter is dedicated to the relatively newly introduced, yet very promising novel therapy which target surface antigen on tumor cells.