[New insights into acute lymphoblastic leukemia].

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a malignant disorder of lymphoid progenitor cells. Advances in our understanding of lymphoblastic leukemia have mainly come from new molecular technologies and genomics. This article describes recent advances in our understanding of maturation arrest of leukemic cells, initial and subsequent gene defects and rearrangements, the role of chemokines, and lymphoid cell homing. These advances point to new ways of targeting leukemic cells.