[Mediastinal infiltration in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia].

The clinical and haematological analysis is presented of six out of 68 cases of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in children. In these six cases mediastinal involvement was found. They accounted for 8.8% of all patients and all were boys aged over 4 years. In all these cases the course was dramatic, with high risk and with signs of poor prognosis: infiltration of organs, very high leucocyte counts. T-cell blasts. The evident clinical uniformity of the symptoms and laboratory similarity of these cases suggest that they should be isolated as a separate subgroup, and therapeutic failures observed as yet indicate the necessity of caution in prognosis.