Nowadays, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains a disease with dismal prognosis, especially for the elderly, for patients who experience relapse or are refractory to standard therapy, and for patients who harbor particular molecular alterations. Translating the enormous biological knowledge that we acquired in the past decades is the next step toward the optimization of treatment, and ultimately the cure, of AML. In recent years, a variety of drugs that can act on a particular molecular mechanims (a target) have become available, offering new promise in the treatment of AML. The field is expanding with novel multimodal therapies that combine small molecule inhibitors, antibodies, hypomethylating agents, chemotherapy, and immunologic interventions (including allogeneic transplant). Thus, precision medicine is advanceing in AML as a model that proposes the customization of healthcare tailored to a subgroup of patients, instead of a one-drug-fits-all model, taking into consideration fitness, accurate evaluation of AML biology, and optimization of the expected efficacy of treatments at the patient level.
The differing biology of AML, as well as the differing indications for treatment and the differing efficacy of treatment modalities, dictate patient-specific approaches. Precision medicine is of high value in this respect; however, there is a strong need to enrich available data on the effective and pragmatical utilization of the aforementioned approaches, in particular as the population included in clinical trials often represent only a moderate share of the patient population due to the severe clinical conditions that routinely prevent AML patients from being included in clinical research.
The scope of this Research Topic will be to present new research and data on precision medicine in AML, particularly on biomarker-guided interventions, multi-modal therapies, therapies based on phenotype, genomics, in vitro diagnostics, co-morbidities, clinical, and real-world data. In particular, we would like to receive submissions which include data addressing:
- The activity of precision medicine in a definite subset, including data on biological, translational, or clinical determinants of response, and data on patient selection due to fitness or other characteristics.
- The optimal combination of therapeutic interventions, including multi-modal therapies, i.e. combinations of donor lymphocytes and targeted agents or hypomethylating agents and small molecule inhibitors.
- The optimal sequence of interventions, i.e. maximizing the therapeutic approach by tailoring the intensiy of treatment to a patient's clinical condition and the likelihood of response.
The collection will include rigorous analyses of high-quality real-world data, preliminary clinical trials, subanalyses, and meta-analyses, irrespective of their positive or negative results, together with Expert Opinion and Review articles on the aforementioned topics.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
Giovanni Marconi received honoraria from Pfizer, Servier, Astellas, Menarini/Stemline; research support from Abbvie, Astrazeneca, Pfizer.
Christina Papayannidis received honoraria from Pfizer, Amgen, and Novartis.
Nowadays, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains a disease with dismal prognosis, especially for the elderly, for patients who experience relapse or are refractory to standard therapy, and for patients who harbor particular molecular alterations. Translating the enormous biological knowledge that we acquired in the past decades is the next step toward the optimization of treatment, and ultimately the cure, of AML. In recent years, a variety of drugs that can act on a particular molecular mechanims (a target) have become available, offering new promise in the treatment of AML. The field is expanding with novel multimodal therapies that combine small molecule inhibitors, antibodies, hypomethylating agents, chemotherapy, and immunologic interventions (including allogeneic transplant). Thus, precision medicine is advanceing in AML as a model that proposes the customization of healthcare tailored to a subgroup of patients, instead of a one-drug-fits-all model, taking into consideration fitness, accurate evaluation of AML biology, and optimization of the expected efficacy of treatments at the patient level.
The differing biology of AML, as well as the differing indications for treatment and the differing efficacy of treatment modalities, dictate patient-specific approaches. Precision medicine is of high value in this respect; however, there is a strong need to enrich available data on the effective and pragmatical utilization of the aforementioned approaches, in particular as the population included in clinical trials often represent only a moderate share of the patient population due to the severe clinical conditions that routinely prevent AML patients from being included in clinical research.
The scope of this Research Topic will be to present new research and data on precision medicine in AML, particularly on biomarker-guided interventions, multi-modal therapies, therapies based on phenotype, genomics, in vitro diagnostics, co-morbidities, clinical, and real-world data. In particular, we would like to receive submissions which include data addressing:
- The activity of precision medicine in a definite subset, including data on biological, translational, or clinical determinants of response, and data on patient selection due to fitness or other characteristics.
- The optimal combination of therapeutic interventions, including multi-modal therapies, i.e. combinations of donor lymphocytes and targeted agents or hypomethylating agents and small molecule inhibitors.
- The optimal sequence of interventions, i.e. maximizing the therapeutic approach by tailoring the intensiy of treatment to a patient's clinical condition and the likelihood of response.
The collection will include rigorous analyses of high-quality real-world data, preliminary clinical trials, subanalyses, and meta-analyses, irrespective of their positive or negative results, together with Expert Opinion and Review articles on the aforementioned topics.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
Giovanni Marconi received honoraria from Pfizer, Servier, Astellas, Menarini/Stemline; research support from Abbvie, Astrazeneca, Pfizer.
Christina Papayannidis received honoraria from Pfizer, Amgen, and Novartis.