Editorial: New Perspectives on Pediatric Acute Leukemia

The scenario of pediatric acute leukemia has changed extremely rapidly over these last decade and the pediatric hematologists are now facing new challenges related to the biology of the disease, the prognostic classifications of patients, and the consequent risk-based targeted approach. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in children has always represented a paradigm of success, and the recent advent of large-scale genomic studies and novel immunotherapy-based approaches have further revolutionized the perspective on this disease. Pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) still suffers from a lower cure rate if compared to ALL, due to a still high incidence of recurrence and of severe and dose-limiting short- and long-term toxicities. Nevertheless, much has been learned about the biology of the disease through studies of specific recurrent genetic lesions and the outcomes for these children are progressively improving thanks to the great collaborative efforts of the main pediatric AML groups worldwide.