[Childhood B-cell lymphomas and leukemias. Improvement of prognosis by a therapy developed for B-neoplasms by the BFM study group].

In two consecutive therapy studies, the BFM multicenter study group treated 55 children with B-NHL from 1975 until 1981 and another 55 children with B-NHL and 22 with B-ALL since 1981. In the 1975/81 study, a therapeutic regimen which produced excellent results in non-B-NHL and -ALL, emerged to be much less effective in disseminated B-NHL. With this regimen the probability of continuous complete remission (CCR) in advanced disease was 34% only after 7 years. Since 1981, a new therapeutic regimen of higher specificity for B-neoplasias improved the probability of CCR at the present time to 100% in localised B-NHL, to 63% in disseminated B-NHL and even in B-ALL to 49%.