ISAL 2017 | The importance of finding strategies to prevent relapse of acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
Kristoffer Hellstrand, MD, PhD from the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden discusses the importance of finding strategies to prevent relapse in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) at the International Symposium on Acute Leukemias (ISAL) 2017 in Munich, Germany. According to Prof. Hellstrand, finding a strategy to prevent relapse is equal to a cure for AML. After the completion of chemotherapy, patients may harbor a minimal clone of leukemic cells that will eventually expand, which leads to recurrence or relapse of the leukemia; developing therapies for this stage of the disease is important as Prof. Hellstrand points out. One of the areas that is seeing a lot of development at the moment is immunotherapy, i.e. activating the patient’s immune system to destroy the leukemic cells.
