Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Oct 16:11:7041-7052.
doi: 10.2147/OTT.S171640. eCollection 2018.

Clinical use of FLT3 inhibitors in acute myeloid leukemia

Grerk Sutamtewagul  1 , Carlos E Vigil  1
Affiliations
Review

Clinical use of FLT3 inhibitors in acute myeloid leukemia

Grerk Sutamtewagul et al. Onco Targets Ther. .

Abstract

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a highly heterogeneous disease. Mutation with internal tandem duplication of fms-like tyrosine kinase-3 (FLT3-ITD) is one of the two most common driver mutations and the presence of FLT3-ITD delivers poor prognosis. A number of ongoing clinical efforts are focused on FLT3 inhibitor use to improve the outcomes of this otherwise difficult leukemia. Midostaurin has been shown to improve outcomes in FLT3-mutated AML in the frontline setting. Several FLT3 inhibitors, especially second-generation agents, have shown clinically meaningful activity in relapsed or refractory AML and in patients not amenable to intensive therapy. In this article, we briefly review the biology of FLT3 in the physiological state and its role in leukemogenesis. We present a detailed review of current clinical evidence of FLT3 inhibitors and their use in the induction, treatment of relapsed or refractory disease, and maintenance setting.

Keywords: FLT3 inhibitor; FLT3-ITD mutation; acute; fms-like tyrosine kinase 3; leukemia; myeloid; protein kinase inhibitors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

References

    1. Arber DA, Orazi A, Hasserjian R, et al. The 2016 revision to the World Health Organization classification of myeloid neoplasms and acute leukemia. Blood. 2016;127(20):2391–2405. - PubMed
    1. Papaemmanuil E, Gerstung M, Bullinger L, et al. Genomic Classification and Prognosis in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. N Engl J Med. 2016;374(23):2209–2221. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nakao M, Yokota S, Iwai T, et al. Internal tandem duplication of the flt3 gene found in acute myeloid leukemia. Leukemia. 1996;10(12):1911–1918. - PubMed
    1. Small D. FLT3 mutations: biology and treatment. Hematology Am Soc Hematol Educ Program. 2006:178–184. - PubMed
    1. Gale RE, Green C, Allen C, et al. The impact of FLT3 internal tandem duplication mutant level, number, size, and interaction with NPM1 mutations in a large cohort of young adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Blood. 2008;111(5):2776–2784. - PubMed