S9910, Leukemia Centralized Reference Laboratories and Tissue Repositories - Ancillary

Primary objective:

• Maintain and expand tissue repositories of highly characterized samples from patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, or myelodysplastic syndromes.

Other objectives as funding permits:

• Develop laboratory assays for rapid and precise diagnosis of leukemia using bone marrow and peripheral blood samples.
• Determine biologic, genetic, and molecular parameters that distinguish different subtypes of human leukemia with differing responses to therapy, and develop "risk-adapted" therapeutic approaches based on these parameters to tailor therapeutic regimens, randomize or stratify patients in clinical trials, or otherwise assist in therapeutic decision-making.
• Develop new automated and standardized laboratory methods for the detection and monitoring of therapeutic responsiveness and minimal residual disease in patients and use this information to design clinical trials.

OUTLINE: Patients receive treatment as directed by the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) study to which they are registered.