Remarkable advances have been made in the understanding and treatment of leukemia since its first description by Alfred Velpeau in 1827 and Alfred Donné in 1844. John Hughes Bennett gave the first official diagnosis back in 1845, and in 1856, the pathologist Rudolf Virchow coined the term leukemia from the Greek words “leukos” and “heima,” also meaning “white blood”. In 1970, it was first confirmed that some patients could be cured of leukemia, and by 1990s, the cure rate for leukemia was around 70 percent. Recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia have since achieved a success rate of some 80 percent
