Clinical Significance of Occult Central Nervous System Disease In Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Central nervous system involvement at diagnosis remains an obstacle to a long-term cure of patients affected by acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The investigators have previously reported that flow cytometry (FCM) is better than conventional cytology (CC) in demonstrating the presence of leukemic cells in the patients'(pts) cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), especially in samples with low cell counts. In the framework of the national Campus ALL program aimed at improving the management of adult ALL patients in the context of the GIMEMA protocols, in the present study the investigators retrospectively evaluated the incidence of occult CNS positivity and its impact on outcome in 241 adult pts with newly diagnosed ALL from 13 centers.