FLT3 Inhibitors Impact Treatment Landscape for Patients With FLT3-Mutated AML

Gail Roboz, MD, a professor of medicine and director of the Clinical and Translational Leukemia Program at Weill Cornell Medicine NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, discusses the use of FLT3 inhibitors as treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), which can be a heterogenous and difficult-to-treat disease. There is a lot of optimism for new drugs and targets in AML, but the disease itself remains tough to treat, according to Roboz.

For patients with aFLT3-ITD mutation, the disease biology is very aggressive, so the application of FLT3 inhibitors, either alone or in combination with chemotherapy, has been very important. Researchers are continuing their efforts to find the most potent and effective FLT3 inhibitor for patients with AML harboring aFLT3-ITD or -TKD mutation. However, since many patients will have had a prior exposure to a FLT3 inhibitor of some kind, Roboz notes that they may still have aFLT3mutation present after relapse and will require another FLT3 inhibitor.