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Review
. 2013 Sep;26(3):253-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.beha.2013.10.005. Epub 2013 Oct 16.

Relapsed acute myeloid leukemia: why is there no standard of care?

Farhad Ravandi  1
Affiliations
Review

Relapsed acute myeloid leukemia: why is there no standard of care?

Farhad Ravandi. Best Pract Res Clin Haematol. 2013 Sep.

Abstract

Relapse after achieving a prior response remains one of the most important obstacles to improving the outcome of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Although overall, the majority of patients with disease relapse do poorly, this is by no means uniform and a number of predictors of outcome have been identified. Previously, most trials of investigational agents in the setting of disease relapse in AML have accrued a wide range of patients with widely different patient and disease characteristics. With increased understanding of the biology of the neoplastic change in AML, and better identification of disease subsets based on their molecular characterization, target-specific novel agents are being developed that will hopefully lead to better strategies, not only for treating relapsed disease, but also for the initial induction treatment.

Keywords: acute myeloid leukemia; biology; relapse; targeted therapy.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Survival in AML by time period
From: Kantarjian H, O’Brien S. Questions regarding frontline therapy of acute myeloid leukemia. Cancer 2010;116:4896–4901. Reprinted with permission of John Wiley and Sons. Copyright © 2010 American Cancer Society.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Prognostic indicators for survival in AML in first relapse (Increasing age, short duration of first CR, adverse cytogenetics, prior hematopoietic stem cell transplant). From [7]. Reprinted with permission. © 2005 American Society of Clinical Oncology. All rights reserved.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Primary refractory AML by treatment and disease biology
From [10]. Reprinted with permission of John Wiley and Sons. Copyright © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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