EHA 2019 | Which research areas hold promise for future treatments for AML?

At the 24th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA), Isolda Fernandez from the Fundaleu - Hospitalization, and Clinical Research Center, Buenos Aires, AR, discusses research areas holding promise for future treatments for acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Dr. Fernandez addresses two key areas; the first being new novel agents, and secondly the role of next generation sequencing (NGS) in measuring minimal residual disease (MRD). Dr. Fernandez acknowledges that in the last few years, there have been great advances in AML, due to the recognition of selective somatic mutation, as well as the durability of treatment to target these mutations. Dr. Fernandez explains that since 1917, there have been drugs approved by the FDA and EMA, such as gilteritinib and midostaurin for FLT3+ mutations; ivosidenib for IDH1, enasidenib for IDH2, venetoclax for BCL2 as well as the re-approval of midostaurin.

One novel agent that Dr. Fernandez discusses is APR-246 for patients with TP43 mutations, which induces apoptosis in cancerous cells. The international phase Ib study achieved a complete remission rate (CR) of 82%. There are also a lot of immunotherapeutic agents such as checkpoint inhibitors (PD1 inhibitor) like nivolumab which can be used in combination to provide effective therapy. There are also novel antibody-based therapies such as bispecific T-cell engagers (BiTE) and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells, however, the results of these studies are still ongoing.

Another key topic to interest to physicians is toxicity data in regard to various drug combinations. This helps physicians select the best treatment for the patient. The last topic Dr. Fernandez discusses is the role of MRD, and how to select the appropriate treatment for patients as a direct result of NGS analysis.

Dr. Fernandez kindly also gave her interview in Spanish with the title; Cuáles serían las áreas de investigación mas prometedoras para el tratamiento futuro de LMA?