Dr. Roboz on Evolving Paradigms in AML Treatment

Gail Roboz, MD, a professor of medicine and director of the Clinical and Translational Leukemia Program at Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, discusses evolving paradigms in treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

AML is moving away from conventional immunophenotype and cytogenetic morphological baseline diagnosis due to new technologies taking the field in a different direction, Roboz explains. Next-generation sequencing is now the standard of care for patients with AML to determine if there may or may not be clinical trials or standard-of-care opportunities for FLT3-mutated patients.

Additionally, there has been a guideline change for outcomes in AML. Complete response will also include a subclassification of minimal residual disease (MRD)—negative or -positive. While this is controversial, it is important to assess for MRD for both flow cytometry and by molecular assessment for molecularly defined AML. In combination regimens, new types of evaluations with both sequencing strategies and with more detailed flow cytometry-based assessments and remission are very important.