New York. Aggressive cancer treatment for very young children with leukemia greatly improves their survival, researchers report. In a study of children aged 1 year or younger who had a relapse of leukemia, more than 60 percent were still alive and disease-free five years after receiving high-dose chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.

Many young children experience a relapse of leukemia after being treated with normal doses of chemotherapy. A team of researchers led by Fernando Marco, MD, of the Hospital Universitario Marques de Valdecilla in Spain, has found that a more aggressive combination approach leads to "striking improvement" in many children. The results of the study are published in the Sept. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

All 26 infants in the study first received high doses of chemotherapy to kill cancer cells as well as to wipe out their immune systems. The infants then received transplants of stem cells, which are immature cells circulating in the blood that have the potential to give rise to any type of blood or immune system cell. The aim of stem cell transplants is to help the body construct an immune system that can fend off cancer.

In most cases, the aggressive approach paid off, according to the report. More than five years after treatment, 18 of the 26 children were still alive and almost all were free from cancer. Survival rates were similar regardless of whether the children received cells taken from their own bodies or from a donor.

Although stem cell transplants carry substantial risks, including the chance of developing a potentially fatal condition called graft-versus-host disease, none of the children died of transplant-related complications, according to the report.

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