Venugopal on the Unmet Needs in AML Treatment

Despite advancements in treatment, acute myeloid leukemia remains a challenging disease with significant unmet needs. Addressing these unmet needs requires continued research, collaboration, and investment in AML research. By advancing understanding of the disease and developing more effective treatments, physicians and researchers can continue to improve the lives of patients with AML.

Here, Sangeetha Venugopal, MD, MS, physician in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology, at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami, discusses what she is most interested about regarding unmet needs in patients with AML.

Transcription:

0:05 | AML is acute myeloid leukemia, and it is an older age group of patients. The median age of diagnosis is 69 years, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't occur in younger patients. So in patients who are older, the most recent—although I wouldn't say most recent, because it's been a couple of years—treatment that revolutionized the survival outcomes in older patients is hypomethylating agents in combination with a pill called venetoclax [Venclexta]. So what we know about this is this treatment is taken indefinitely, meaning there is no stopping point. What I would like to know, or most of the patients would like to know, is there a stopping point for this treatment? And if that is the case, what are the subgroups that we can apply for stopping treatment? I'm sure it is a selected subgroup of patients who will whom we can stop treatment. So I would like to know that particular subgroup, so that is a major unmet need.

Transcription generated with AI and edited for clarity.