Leukemia: Treatable but Not Highly Curable

Thirty years ago, doctors described childhood leukemia as highly treatable. Unfortunately, that description only aggravated the grief and sense of betrayal when parents discovered what it meant: an invariably fatal outcome that—through much suffering—might be postponed for some months. Now, from the article by Arthur Boyer, Michael Goitein, Tony Lomax, and Eros Pedroni (“Radiation in the Treatment of Cancer,” Physics Today, September 2002, page 34), we learn that childhood leukemia is highly curable. It no doubt depends on one’s definition of “highly,” but I see little in current mortality statistics to warrant the assertion. Although “highly treatable” may now make sense, families continue to lose children to this malady.