Q: My nephew, who is 2 months old, has been . The doctors have started chemotherapy. He was a very healthy baby. About 20 days back the parents observed a swelling in his testicle and took him to hospital where they were informed that it is hernia. The doctors operated successfully but later he started getting fever regularly. When they took him to the hospital, the doctors confirmed it to be ALL. The doctors say the treatment would take 1 to 1.5 years. My questions are: 1. Is it completely curable?. 2. What are the chances for the desease to relapse? 3. Will he lead a normal life after the treatment? 4. What are the side effects for the treatment provided I will be grateful if you can provide me some information for the queries.Thank you so much.

A:The information given in the query is rather incomplete as we need to know the full details of the patients investigations including chromosomes and immunophenotyping before we can tell about the chances of cure. Whatever the chances, once the child goes through the full treatment and the child does not relapse for a full year after finishing the treatment, the child is practically cured. Usually in children as small as the one mentioned, the treatment is tailored in such a way that there should be minimal long term side effects. If you want to know the long term effects, we need to know the treatment being given to the child.