Sound nutrition should certainly be applied the minute a diagnosis of leukemia is made. Nevertheless letters from parents contain such phrases as: "Mary has not needed a transfusion for 18 months"; "Tom is full of pep and back in school"; "The doctors are completely baffled by this case"; "Everyone says it's a miracle," and a dozen similar remarks. Many of these children have now died, but their last months seem to me to have been less miserable than most; and in a few cases, parents have felt the improved nutrition gave them an extra year of life. If an adequate diet were started early enough and continued consistently, particularly during remissions, perhaps lives could be saved.

Rats lacking vitamin E develop too many white blood cells, which decrease when the vitamin is given; and vitamin E causes the blood platelet count, usually low in leukemia, to increase. Furthermore, a deficiency of vitamin E allows human bone marrow to become abnormal; and giving this vitamin to anemic infants has quickly improved the bone marrow. Supplements of this vitamin are rarely given to persons with leukemia, yet foods furnish only a fraction of the amount needed by healthy individuals.