Mark G. Frattini, MD, PhD

2010-12-04

The Holy Grail for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) therapy in both young and older adults is the identification of an effective regimen that results in long-term remission for the majority of patients, including those with a normal karyotype.

This morning’s education program, “Challenges in Acute Myeloid Leukemia,” at 7:30 a.m. in Valencia B/C will detail the advances in the treatment of AML including approaches to induction chemotherapy in young adults as well as the best and most appropriate therapy for older patients with this disease. The faculty will discuss the importance of molecular and genetic abnormalities in determining disease response, and ultimately, overall survival.

Dr. James Foran from the University of Alabama at Birmingham will begin with a review of the current prognostic markers that are employed to predict treatment response and survival. He will focus on the impact of these markers in both older and younger patients with AML, particularly those with normal cytogenetics. In addition, he will outline the role of these markers in treatment strategy including timing of possible allogeneic stem cell transplantation.     

The treatment of older adults with AML, including use of prognostic scoring to identify the population of elderly patients appropriate for intensive therapy, will be presented by Dr. Selina Luger from the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Luger will review clinical trials that have intensively treated this patient population and also outline possible new chemotherapeutic regimens that might be used for patients not deemed appropriate for aggressive treatment.

Dr. Hugo Fernandez from Moffitt Cancer Center will then conclude by discussing targeted therapy and dose-intensified anthracycline induction chemotherapy in young adults with AML. He will compare and contrast the ability of the various different anthracyclines in achieving a complete remission.

The challenge for AML therapy remains to be identifying which therapeutic regimen will result in a complete remission for specific patients, whether young or old. The identification of both cytogenetic and new molecular markers to help classify these patients has had a major impact in helping to achieve that goal.  

Dr. Frattini indicated no relevant conflicts of interest.