“Unfortunately for many patients with AML, their disease will come back and we call that a disease relapse,” says Dr. Tara Lin, director, Acute Leukemia Program, University of Kansas Medical Center. “It’s really important that when a patient has relapse of their disease that they see someone who has a lot of experience in treating AML.”
Consider Clinical Trials
“When you go to the national guidelines for AML and relapse, there is no one standard of care,” says Dr. Lin. “And very often we will recommend that a patient consider a clinical trial in order to learn more about new therapies that may be more effective at the time of disease relapse.”
Standard Therapies
Read MoreRelapse After Long-Term Remission
“For patients who are in remission — that means that there is no measurable AML for a long time, anywhere from 18-months to several years — we will very often go back to their original induction regimen to try to get them back into a remission.”Relapse After Short-Term Remission
“For patients who have a much shorter duration of response, we will not go back to the treatments that they’ve already had, but really try to come up with something that’s different so that we can target the leukemia in a whole new way.”The Curative Option: Stem Cell Transplant
“For all patients of AML who have a relapse of their disease, when their AML comes back, we know that the only curative option for them is going to be a what’s called a bone-marrow or a stem-cell transplant,” Dr. Lin explains. “A stem cell transplant works best when patients are in remission. So the first goal when someone is in relapse is to get them back into remission. That way, we can pursue a stem-cell transplant, which really works best when patients are in remission.”
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