Lymphoblastic lymphoma: late relapse in childhood.

This report describes two children with lymphoblastic lymphoma who relapsed more than 2 1/2 years from diagnosis. Relapses occurred at seven and 20 months after completion of treatment. Their therapy consisted of an intensive pulse chemotherapy program combined with radiation therapy. Initial relapse after two years' treatment has been extremely rare in patients receiving contemporary chemotherapy programs, and two-year survival without disease has been considered a cure. These cases illustrate that late relapses can occur after intensive chemotherapy and that two-year disease-free survival must not be interpreted as a complete cure.