Poor Prognosis in Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) Is Associated with HLA-A11

Acute childhood lymphoblastic leukemias (ALL) consists of several biologically distinct malignancies derived from different ancestral cells. A number of clinical and hematologic parameters are currently considered to be indicators of poor prognosis, i.e., male sex, high whiteblood cell counts, age below 2 or over 10 years, the presence of certain karyotypic abnormalities, and cell surface markers (1–3).