BJH - volume 6, issue 5, december 2015
D.A. Breems MD, PhD, B. Löwenberg MD, PhD
Summary
Relapse is the most prevalent cause of treatment failure and death in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia. Because only a minority of patients who experience relapse will derive durable benefit from current reinduction and salvage therapy, prognostic factors and predictive models have been developed. Achievement of a second complete remission and the application of salvage allogeneic stem cell transplantation represent crucial objectives for reaching long-term disease-free survival and improving the prognosis of patients with acute myeloid leukaemia in first relapse. Combination chemotherapy schedules that include high-dose cytarabine are frequently used in therapeutic efforts of attaining a second complete remission. In relapsed acute myeloid leukaemia with poor risk genetic features or those with early relapse after previous exposure to high-dose cytarabine, investigational drugs may be the preferred choice. The search for improved treatment with novel agents in clinical trials represents an active area of research.
(BELG J HEMATOL 2015;6(5):182–7)
Read more
Top
