Stages of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Leukemia staging differs from that of other cancers.

Most types of cancer are staged to communicate the size of the tumor and how far the cancer has spread. But leukemia rarely causes tumors. Because it is in your bone marrow and blood, it has already spread throughout your body. With ALL, doctors use different terms to describe the response of the leukemia to treatment.

The phases of ALL:

• Untreated ALL
• ALL in remission (after treatment, you have no signs or symptoms of leukemia)
• Minimal residual disease (ALL appears to be in remission, but tests find a few leukemia cells in your bone marrow)
• Refractory ALL (the leukemia is not responding to treatment)
• Relapsed ALL, also called recurrent ALL (the leukemia has come back after treatment)