Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a heterogeneous disease. At the German Cancer Congress 2016, held in Berlin, Germany, from 24 to 27 February 2016, Martin Schrappe, MD, PhD, from University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Kiel, Kiel, Germany, explains that there have been significant advances in the understanding of pediatric ALL subtypes and there is now a need to define the clinical importance of these subtypes.

In April 2012, 7-year-old cancer patient Emily (Emma) Whitehead became the first child to be enrolled in CTL019, a clinical trial for patients with B cell cancers such as acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), and the adult disease chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Emily received this experimental treatment at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in April 2012 after her cancer relapsed for the second time. Her cancer has been in remission since her treatment.

Elias Jabbour, MD from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX talks about a Phase II clinical trial of inotuzumab ozogamicin in elderly acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients, presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2015 Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL. Inotuzumab ozogamicin is an anti-CD22 antibody that contains a toxin attached to it, called calicheamicin. When the antibody binds to the cells, the toxin is internalized, binds to DNA, resulting in cell death. This drug was administered to relapsed/refractory patients, in combination with lower-dose chemotherapy (mini-hyper-CVD). The drug proved to be very effective, with a response rate of 95%, and all patients achieving minimum residual disease (MRD) negativity status. Dr Jabbour also discusses the side-effects observed in this study.
Recorded at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2015 Annual Meeting, at Orlando, FL.

In this segment, Dan Douer, MD, and Mark R Litzow, MD, describe the novel immunotherapy agent, blinatumomab.