Emerging antibody-based therapies for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia

The development of antibody-based therapeutics for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has long been hampered due to the shared expression of antigens on leukemic blasts and hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC). Nevertheless, the first antibody-drug conjugate has been approved for the treatment of AML in the recent years. In addition, multiple antibody-based therapeutics including antibody-drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies and immunocytokines are currently being developed in clinical trials with some of them demonstrating encouraging results alone and/or in combination with current standard therapies. In this review we discuss current concepts of antibody-based therapies and results from emerging antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of AML.

Automated summary

The development of antibody-based therapeutics for patients with acute myeloid leukemia has been challenging due to the shared expression of antigens on leukemic blasts and hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. However, recent years have seen the approval of the first antibody-drug conjugate for AML treatment, and promising results from other antibody-based therapeutics in clinical trials.