A total of 42 adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia were treated with an aggressive induction/consolidation chemotherapy (MCP-841) between June 1986 and December 1991. 32 patients (76.19%) achieved complete remission at the end of induction. There were 9 induction deaths, 6 of them due to infection. All patients received cranial irradiation in the dose of 20 Gy and intrathecal methotrexate for CNS prophylaxis. Twelve patients relapsed, 10 in the bone marrow, one case had isolated CNS relapse and the other relapsed in the bone marrow and CNS. The actuarial overall survival of all patients at the end of 5 years was 41.94%. Patient characteristics including age, sex, FAB morphology, phenotype, WBC count, platelet count and LDH did not influence survival significantly.