Could New Chemotherapy Treatments Offer Better AML Options?
Leukaemia comes in several different forms and the available treatments vary. For those with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), there are different chemotherapy options and research has indicated some of them may be much more favourable for older patients.
If you or a family member has leukaemia, the diagnosis can be confusing. The term relates to blood cancer, but there are several different forms of the disease.
The most common types include:
- Chronic lymphatic leukaemia
- Acute lymphatic leukaemia
- Chronic myeloid leukaemia
- Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)
The chief distinction in types is between chronic leukaemia, where the cancer is slow-growing, and acute, where it progresses quickly.
In the latter case, the disease is manifested in the bone marrow, where non-functional blood cells build up in the marrow. This absence of function impedes the ability of the marrow to produce sufficient healthy blood cells.
For a patient diagnosed with AML, this means there is an excessive production of abnormal white blood cells, which reduces the production of the normal type responsible for essential immune system functions.
How Is Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treated?
Treatments for AML can include chemotherapy as well as radiotherapy, stem cell treatments and targeted therapy.
As with any cancer, every patient’s circumstances are different, based on various demographic, background health, genetic and other factors, as well as how early the diagnosis takes place.
Many patients might find that this is not their experience of treatment; however. Some may encounter a formulaic, one-size-fits-all approach.
This might work well for some patients but much less so for others. That is why many patients could benefit greatly from personalised private chemotherapy treatment.
In the case of AML, chemotherapy usually starts very soon after diagnosis and can involve an extended hospital stay. Combinations of different therapies are given, each aiming to target cancer cells.
Because this can take weeks and the side effects can be significant for patients, the preferred treatment is one that is as gentle as possible, especially for older, frailer patients who may not be in sufficiently robust condition to handle some treatments.
This must be balanced with finding the most effective treatments that have the greatest impact on the cancer to produce the best longer-term patient outcomes.
Are There Any New Chemotherapy Developments For Acute Myeloid Leukemia?
Encouraging news on this front has emerged from new research in the United States. The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has published a study with the positive conclusion that the newest chemotherapy drugs offer older adults the dual benefits of being gentler with less pronounced side effects, as well as significantly better patient outcomes.
Although AML can affect patients of any age, the prevalence is far higher in people over the age of 60, which means a combination of age and the emergence of other health conditions in later life can limit the tolerance patients have of intensive therapies.
This has seen the old, standard approach of newly diagnosed patients undergoing intensive chemotherapy (and sometimes other treatments) early on in an attempt to achieve remission with gentler, low-dose therapies that have proved more effective in terms of final outcomes (extended life and outright cures), as well as being more tolerable.
Summarising these findings, which were published in the journal Blood Advances, study leader Mikkael Sekeres said: “The landscape of AML treatment has changed dramatically with more effective therapies,” adding that recent research has led to the US Food and Drug Administration approving three new acute leukaemia drugs in the past two years.
However, he observed, incorporating new drugs into patient treatments is not a quick process.
Even so, the fact that new drugs with better all-round outcomes for older patients in particular have emerged provides good reasons for increased optimism about the ability of patients to handle the treatment and the outcomes.
How Can Personalised Therapy Help AML Patients?
If you have AML, the chemotherapy you may have had so far might have followed the more standard path and might have turned out to be gruelling. It may not necessarily be effective either, as it is in the nature of such treatments that some drugs work better on some patients than others.
This is why tailored private chemotherapy treatment may provide solutions that other treatments you have received up until now have not. Our approach is always centred on the patient as an individual and the development of new chemotherapy drugs provides more opportunities to offer something new and different.
If you come to us for cutting-edge chemotherapy treatment for AML or other forms of leukaemia, you can be sure we will provide personalised care based on the best available options, which will take all of your circumstances into account.
Learn more about our advanced chemotherapy treatments for leukaemia on the Amethyst Group website.
