Jennifer Mack, MD, MPH, Medical Director of Inpatient Oncology at Dana-Farber Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center explains acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)

Angela describes how she dealt with her two-year-old son's leukaemia diagnosis, and an expert explains the common symptoms and treatment options.

Your health care provider may use many tools to diagnose ALL and figure out which subtype you have:

- A physical exam
- A medical history
- Blood tests, such as
-- Complete blood count (CBC) with differential
-- Blood chemistry tests such as a basic metabolic panel (BMP), comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP), kidney function tests, liver function tests, and electrolyte panel
- Blood smear
- Bone marrow tests. There are two main types - bone marrow aspiration and bone marrow biopsy. Both tests involve removing a sample of bone marrow and bone. The samples are sent to a lab for testing.
- Genetic tests to look for gene and chromosome changes

If you are diagnosed with ALL, you may have additional tests to see whether the cancer has spread. These include imaging tests and a lumbar puncture, which is a procedure to collect and test cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

Discusses what leukemia is and differences between the 4 main types of leukemia.

The panelists, Bijal D. Shah, MD; Raoul Tibes, MD, PhD; and Stefan Faderl, MD, identify patient populations eligible for allogeneic stem cell transplant for the management of their acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

The panel of experts shift their discussion to the adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia setting, considering the potential to improve patient outcomes with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy.