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ISAL 2017 | The history of collaboration in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) research

Francesco Lo-Coco, MD, from the University Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy, discusses the history of collaboration in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL, APML) research at the International Symposium on Acute Leukemias (ISAL) 2017 in Munich, Germany. He describes how this is more of a tradition in Europe, starting with the French pioneer Jean Bernhard in the 1970s, who recognized that patients with this leukemia subtype responded to the drug daunorubicin. Trials with anthracyclines alone were started in Europe, but not immediately followed in the US. However, US investigators pioneered the combination of anthracyclines with all-trans retinoic acid. Prof. Lo Coco concludes that the whole process has been collaborative.