SOHO State of the Art Updates and Next Questions: Oral Therapy in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

With the recent development of several new effective agents, treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is evolving. Molecularly targeted agents developed against leukemogenic pathways are demonstrating significant promise both as monotherapy and in combination with standard regimens. Although oral chemotherapeutic agents have long been used in the treatment of various malignancies, their use in patients with AML has been hitherto limited. The availability of most newly approved targeted agents in oral formulation has provided us with the potential for developing all oral regimens in AML. This is particularly important for the older, less fit patients allowing reduced requirements for hospital visits in order to administer therapy, especially when in remission and for continuation of therapy. A potential barrier to the success of such regimens is adherence to therapy with prior studies demonstrating increased success of therapy with high adherence. Strategies to develop completely oral regimens are likely to further revolutionize AML therapy especially in the elderly.