UKALL 2003 - Regimen Schedules

I'll now try and explain the differences between the three regimens (A, B and C). They are basically the same length of time – 2 years for girls and 3 years for boys (yup, being a girl gives you an advantage!).

Regimen A

Weeks 1-5 Induction

Weeks 6-8 Consolidation/Central Nervous System Stage II (stage I was part of the Induction)

Weeks 9-16 Interim Maintenance no.1.

Weeks 17-23 Delayed Intensification no.1

Weeks 24-31 Interim Maintenance no.2

Weeks 32-38 Delayed Intensification no.2

Weeks 39-50 Maintenance Cycle no.1

Weeks 51 ...

These maintenance cycles then just repeat themselves until the end of the treatment - 112 weeks for girls and 164 weeks for boys.

Regimen B

Weeks 1-5 Induction

Weeks 6-10 Standard BFM Consolidation – (BFM stands for Berlin-Frankfurt-Munster - cities in Germany where they worked this stage out),

Weeks 11-18 Interim Maintenance no. 1

Weeks 19-25 Delayed Intensification no. 1

Weeks 26-33 Interim Maintenance no. 2

Weeks 34-40 Delayed Intensification no. 2

Weeks 41-52 Maintenance Cycle no.1

Weeks 53 ...

These maintenance cycles then just repeat themselves until the end of the treatment - 114 weeks for girls and 166 weeks for boys.

Regimen C

Weeks 1-5 Induction

Weeks 6-14 Augmented BFM Consolidation – (BFM stands for Berlin-Frankfurt-Munster - cities in Germany where they worked this stage out)

Weeks 15-22 Escalating Capizzi no.1

Weeks 23-30 Delayed Intensification no.1

Weeks 31–38 Escalating Cappizzi no.2

Weeks 39-46 Delayed Intensification no.2

Weeks 47-58 Maintenance Cycle no.1

Weeks 58 ...

These maintenance cycles then just repeat themselves until the end of the treatment - 118 weeks for girls and 170 weeks for boys.

There may be delays due to, for example, an infection (somehing that will almost certainly happen as your child's white blood count is very low) or the levels of neutrophils are too low to start a certain medication and you have to wait unil they have recovered to a certain level.

I wanted to do a pretty graphic or spreadsheet to show all this but my blogger skills are not up to it yet

From here on in, I think I'll only specifically be discussing Regimen C – as I'm not in a position to specifically discuss the ins/outs of the other regimens as they pertain to your child. Regimen CKezia, as I've said, is on Regimen C.

I will talk more about treatment, protocol etc but in the next post I'll try and focus on the story and post a photo or two!

What I will say is that the doctors will take your child off regimen/protocol if there is any doubt that it's not working, if any test reports are not as expected, if your child shows any bad reactions to medication. They will then “hack” it – to the best of their considerable knowledge.

Although many children are showing regular or standard patterns of ALL and responding to the standard treatments outlined above (and, thank your deity, until now, Kezia is), some will not, and as we know so little about such cases, the doctors have to respond to each new development as best they can.

H. is a case in point, and my colleague M.'s wife as well (although we're not talking ALL in her case).