Advances in the Treatment of Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

The treatment of adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has largely followed the successful pediatric model that uses multiagent chemotherapy regimens. Although cytotoxic chemotherapy can induce complete remissions, elderly patients are frequently unable to tolerate its intensity due to toxicities and comorbidities. Elderly patients particularly often relapse, leading to a 5-year overall survival (OS) of only 20%. In an effort to improve outcomes while minimizing toxicities, novel targeted therapies have been developed: monoclonal antibodies against CD19, CD20 and CD22; tyrosine kinase inhibitors; chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies; BH3 mimetics.

Source: Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma and Leukemia - July 2, 2019 Category: Hematology Authors: Shilpa Paul, Caitlin R. Rausch, Mary Alma Welch, Hagop M. Kantarjian, Elias J. Jabbour Tags: Review Article Source Type: research