Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common childhood cancer, is a highly curable disease, with approximately 85% of patients being long-term survivors when treated with current chemotherapy regimens. Risk-adapted, intensified chemotherapy regimens have greatly improved the outcome for children, adolescents, and young adults with newly diagnosed B-cell ALL (B-ALL), which comprises approximately 20% of patients with ALL, and can be safely delivered with proper supportive care measures. Intensification of chemotherapy as salvage therapy, frequently adopting the same agents used during initial therapy, has also been successful at inducing sustained remissions for patients with late relapses. However, this approach has been largely unsuccessful for high-risk patients who experience relapse within 3 years from diagnosis because survival outcomes for these patients remain poor. Additionally, mortality associated with toxicity related to therapy contributes significantly to the poor survival.

JAMA Live Highlights features comments from livestream interviews by JAMA Network Editor in Chief Howard Bauchner, MD. His discussions with experts in clinical care, public health, and health policy focus on critical issues related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Comments have been edited for clarity.

This Medical News article discusses reports of myocardial injury and myocarditis among patients with COVID-19.

This JAMA Patient Page describes how the new Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines available in the US work and explains why 2 doses of these vaccines are needed to confer adequate immunity.

This cohort study estimates the association of use of intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG) plus methylprednisolone vs IVIG alone with treatment failure for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), defined as fever persistence at 2 days or fever recurrence within 7 days.

Over the past 2 weeks numerous states have announced a major shift in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination programs—from a textured approach that includes individual risk factors for morbidity and mortality (eg, age and high-risk medical conditions), occupational risk factors for exposure (eg, first responders and correctional officers), and other societal priorities (eg, essential workers such as teachers, grocery store employees, and public transportation workers) to an approach focused on vaccinating all individuals aged 65 years and older. Concerns have been raised that the more detailed approach has been difficult to implement, thus slowing the rollout of vaccines, and may leave decisions regarding who gets vaccinated to people not adequately trained to make such a decision.

This Viewpoint reviews circulating SARS-CoV-2 genetic variants and mechanisms of immunity by which they might escape coronavirus vaccine-induced protection and proposes 6 measures to address them, including enhanced variant isolation and testing procedures and continued adherence to mask-wearing and other established public health measures.

This Viewpoint from the CDC summarizes global data about SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks at K-12 schools and emphasizes implementation of community- and school-based policies shown to diminish spread of infection that would allow safer resumption of in-person education in the 2021/22 school year.

This study uses national survey data to describe overall and regional trends in adherence to protective behaviors (mask wearing, physical distancing, staying at home, others) among US adults during the COVID-19 pandemic from April to November 2020.

This Viewpoint considers whether the shift away from private investment toward government funding of drug and vaccine development and commercialization during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is sustainable, arguing that the same or greater level of public investment will be necessary if drug prices are to remain affordable and if the US wants to maintain its global leadership position.

This Medical Letter review summarizes the evidence underlying the US Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization of bamlanivimab, an investigational neutralizing IgG1 monoclonal antibody for treatment of COVID-19, including specification of high-risk patient groups eligible for the drug and its dosage and administration.

After stakeholders secured lower prices for a recently approved pediatric HIV medication, an international partnership has urged low- and middle-income countries to procure the drug and make it widely available.

Conditions like respiratory infections, tuberculosis, and enteric infections that disproportionately affect low-income countries are consistently understudied in clinical trials, according to a recent study.

High-income countries have reserved more than half of the world’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine doses despite representing just 14% of the world’s population, according to an analysis of publicly available data on premarket purchase agreements.

This Viewpoint proposes broad principles to guide Medicaid reform as a means to advance health equity, including stabilization of its funding and coverage; coordination of its infrastructure; alignment of health care and social spending at the point of care; and a value-based approach to benefits.

This Viewpoint reviews the social and economic drivers of declines in longevity in the US, especially among lower socioeconomic status groups, and proposes policy options for the Biden-Harris administration to mitigate the trend, including an increase in the federally mandated minimum wage.

This narrative review summarizes treatment options for patients with unresectable metastatic colorectal cancer, focusing on the importance of genomic profiling to identify KRAS/NRAS/BRAF variants to guide immunotherapy.

In this narrative medicine essay, a psychiatrist finally at peace after his wife's death to cancer learns that his prostate-specific antigen levels have begun to rise, reminding him to embrace uncertainty, a loss of control, and change.

While doctors operate, striving to save your life, I walk a windowless corridor—no clocks, surely past midnight—find the neurosurgery waiting room, open the door and stop, ambushed by aromas of Sunday dinner. A family eats, rosary beads slid wordlessly, chairs and loveseats pulled around a table spread with fried chicken in a bucket, quarts of slaw, baked beans, mashed potatoes. Plastic cutlery and napkins sealed in packets like surgical instruments. A stranger offers me a paper plate, blank as a communion wafer, inviting me to sit down with them, break bread, pray this picnic won’t become a wake.