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Aggressive Leukemia Could Be Treated With New Combined Therapy, German Scientists Discover
Aggressive leukemia - acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a particularly aggressive form of blood cancer that usually progresses rapidly if prompt and intensive treatment is not applied. Although the disease can often be controlled with chemotherapy (remission), it returns in many patients. Permanent cure is often only possible with stem cell transplantation - provided that the leukemia can be sufficiently "controlled" beforehand.
TL;DR
- Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive blood cancer that often returns after chemotherapy.
- A new study (RELAX) combined intensive chemotherapy (HAM) with venetoclax, a BCL2 inhibitor.
- The HAM-Ven combination achieved a 75% remission rate in recurrent AML, up from 40% with previous methods.
- This improved remission rate increases the likelihood of patients being able to undergo stem cell transplantation.
- Researchers believe HAM-Ven could become a new standard treatment for recurrent AML and a bridge to transplantation.