Targeted therapy in acute myeloid leukaemia: current status and future directions

Background: The limit of acceptable toxicity for standard chemotherapeutic drugs used in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) therapy has been reached. New therapeutic strategies are therefore needed. Objective: This review summarizes development in new strategies, and gives an overview of the clinical status on new drugs for non-promyelocytic AML in adults. Methods: Information was principally gathered from the databases ClinicalTrials.gov and PubMed.gov. Results/conclusion: The major improvements in AML treatment during the last two decades has not been the introduction of new therapeutic agents, but rather the more optimal use of well-known drugs (e.g., high-dose cytarabine therapy, the use of ATRA in maintenance therapy of acute promyelocytic leukaemia) and improvement in the diagnosis and treatment of potentially life-threatening complications in patients treated with allogeneic stem cell transplantation. However, further investigations based on specific targeted therapy and stratification of patients according to knowledge of the individual disease and health status will probably be necessary in future studies of new targeted therapy.