AML Treatment Options: What’s Available?

AML Treatment Options: What’s Available?

Dr. Jessica Altman reviews currently available treatments for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), including chemotherapy, stem cell transplant, and clinical trials.

Dr. Jessica Altman is Director of the Acute Leukemia Program at Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. More about Dr. Altman here.

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Fact or Fiction? AML Treatment and Side Effects Resource Guide

 

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Transcript:

Patricia:                         

Dr. Altman, let’s talk a little bit right now about treatments that are currently available for AML. What kinds of things might patients want to familiarize themselves with?

Dr. Jessica Altman:    

So, we are at a point in AML therapy where there’s not just one choice of treatment.

There are a number of choices that depend on patient characteristics, disease characteristics, and patient goals. So, there’s a lot that the physician with their patient and family members take into account and consider when they’re coming up with a therapeutic strategy.

Patricia:          

So, give us a couple of examples. Chemotherapy is one way to treat AML, correct?

Dr. Jessica Altman:    

Correct. So, the treatments all stem from a chemotherapy backbone. And there are more intensive chemotherapy regimens that usually involve a long, in-patient hospitalization and less intensive chemotherapy regimens. Those chemotherapy regimens can sometimes be combined with targeted therapy based on the genomic structure or the mutations present in leukemia cells. 

Patricia:          

Stem cell transplant is also an option as well?

Dr. Jessica Altman:                

Stem cell transplant is an option that is utilized ideally after the leukemia is in remission as a way of maintaining disease control.

And for some patients, that is the best approach for a curative option, and some patients’ leukemia does not require a stem cell transplant.

Patricia:          

Clinical trials available as well for AML, doctor?

Dr. Jessica Altman:    

So, we feel very strongly that the best treatment strategy for most patients is a well-designed, appropriate clinical trial for all phases of AML therapy. It’s because of research and clinical trials over the last number of years that we have had advances and more approvals for the treatments of Acute Myeloid Leukemia.