Introduction: The development of cancer therapies offers a longer survival to the patients, but also exposes them to toxic effects that generate morbidity and even mortality. Chemotherapeutic agents have the potential to affect negatively the central and peripheral nervous systems, particularly when administered sequentially or in combination with other antineoplastic therapies. Treatment for acute leukemia includes the use of regimens with two or more antineoplastic drugs, as well as, in the case of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a greater intrathecal exposure due to the high risk of parenchymal or leptomeningeal infiltration. Materials and methods: With the objective of identifying and describing the studies of toxicity in the central and peripheral nervous system in patients older than 18 years with a diagnosis of acute leukemia who receive chemotherapeutic treatment, a structured literature search was carried out in the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases, with the key words representative of acute leukemia, chemotherapeutic agents, and neurological outcome, the most important being: acute leukemia, vincristine, methotrexate, cytarabine, and neurological manifestations. Including articles from the date of introduction until November 1, 2020. A selection is made in duplicate, initial by reading the title, later reading the title and abstract of the articles, followed by a full-text review of the articles included. Results: 112 articles were included in the review, 98 with full text and 14 abstracts. From there, 199 cases of patients with neurological toxicity associated with the use of chemotherapy were obtained, 138 of those due to compromise in the central nervous system, the most representative were: cerebellar syndrome (32), encephalopathy (21), venous sinus thrombosis (19) , myelopathy (16) and seizures (15). The remaining 61 cases correspond to peripheral nervous system involvement, where motor sensory neuropathy occurred in 26 cases. Discussion: The intrathecal administration of methotrexate and cytarabine is frequent in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia due to the great risk of infiltration to the central nervous system; whose neurotoxic effect is due to the depletion of folates, the formation of toxic metabolites and the damage of the blood-brain barrier, allowing the presentation of encephalopathy, encephalomyelitis and even reversible vasoconstriction syndrome. Peripheral neuropathy is associated with the use of vincristine, whose effect on microtubules not only interferes with neoplastic proliferative activity, but also with axonal transport.