Dr. Ravandi on Relapse/Refractory AML

Farhad Ravandi, MD, professor, Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine, chief, Section of Developmental Therapeutics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the treatment of patients with relapse/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Ravandi says the outcomes for patients with this disease are currently poor. Studies have looked at the population of cells in these patients, and there are certain complexities, such as clonal evolution and clonal selection, which make patients less amenable to traditional cytotoxins.

Ravandi believes that the treatment paradigm will move away from giving patients high doses of cytotoxins, with the exception of those who have a very long first remission duration. He adds that he and his colleagues will incorporate novel agents, in order to discover better strategies.

In order to prevent relapse/refractory AML, monitoring minimal residual disease, as well as eradicating it, becomes significant, concludes Ravandi.