# AALL0031: imatinib with intensive chemotherapy for Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in children

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-aall0031-imatinib-ph-positive-all-schultz-jco-2009/  
OnCo record `paper-aall0031-imatinib-ph-positive-all-schultz-jco-2009` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Adding continuous imatinib to intensive chemotherapy more than doubled three-year event-free survival in childhood Philadelphia-positive leukaemia compared with historical controls and matched the results of transplant, changing the standard of care.

## Summary

Children's Oncology Group study of 92 children with Ph-positive ALL treated with intensive chemotherapy plus imatinib for increasing durations across cohorts, with transplant for those with a sibling donor.

Three-year event-free survival in the cohort with continuous imatinib was 80 percent, more than double the 35 percent of historical controls, and no worse than with sibling donor transplant; toxicity was not increased.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-17
- Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology
- Year: 2009
- DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2008.21.2514
- Authors: Schultz KR, Bowman WP, Aledo A, et al.
- Findings: Three-year event-free survival 80 percent with continuous imatinib vs 35 percent in historical controls.; Chemotherapy plus imatinib comparable to sibling donor transplant.
- What it means: A tyrosine kinase inhibitor throughout chemotherapy is the standard for childhood Ph-positive ALL, and transplant in first remission is no longer routine.
- Caveats: Non-randomised comparison with historical controls; small cohorts.

## Sources

- J Clin Oncol 2009: https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2008.21.2514
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19805687/

## Connected records

- cancers: [Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in children (Ph-positive ALL)](https://onco.cc/cancers/all-paediatric-ph-positive/)
- drugs: [Imatinib](https://onco.cc/drugs/imatinib/)
- journals: [Journal of Clinical Oncology](https://onco.cc/journals/jco/)

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