Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

None Provided.

Criteria
 DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

 • Newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) or acute undifferentiated leukemia

 • T-cell ALL allowed

 • Bilineage or biphenotypic acute leukemia allowed provided the morphology and immunophenotype are predominately lymphoid

 • No mature B-cell ALL or acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)

 • Must be < 366 days of age at diagnosis; neonates in the first month of life must be > 36 weeks gestational age at diagnosis

 • Must be enrolled on protocol COG-AALL08B1 prior to enrollment on this protocol

 • Previously untreated except for the following:

 • Any amount of steroid pretreatment allowed, provided that the patient meets all other eligibility requirements

 • Inhalation steroids are not considered as pretreatment

 • Intrathecal (IT) chemotherapy (per protocol) is allowed for patient convenience at the time of the diagnostic bone marrow or venous line placement to avoid second lumbar puncture

 • No B-cell ALL or acute myelogenous leukemia

 PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

 • No Down syndrome

 PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

 • See Disease Characteristics

 • No concurrent chronic steroid treatment for another disease

 • No other concurrent non-protocol chemotherapy or investigational therapy