High Interleukin-15 Expression Characterizes Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia With Involvement of the CNS

PURPOSE: Applying current diagnostic methods, overt CNS involvement is a rare event in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). In contrast, CNS-directed therapy is essential for all patients with ALL because without it, the majority of patients eventually will experience relapse. To approach this discrepancy and to explore potential distinct biologic properties of leukemic cells that migrate into the CNS, we compared gene expression …