Deep Remission Leads to Improved Survival in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Because acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has proven to be exceptionally heterogeneous at the molecular level, prognostication based on molecular profiling is limited. To determine the prognostic value of assessing minimal residual disease (MRD) in the most common subtype of AML, UK investigators correlated the results of pretreatment molecular profiling and MRD analyses in standard-risk patients with mutation in the NPM1 gene.

Newly diagnosed AML patients were enrolled in the phase III AML17 clinical trial (Blood 2015; 125:3878), a randomized multicenter study testing daunorubicin dosing (90 vs. 60 mg/m²) in treatment course 1 and risk-adapted chemotherapy in course 2. Subsequent consolidation therapy included allogeneic stem-cell transplantatio…