Dr. Roellig on FLT3 ITD/NPM1 Mutation Status for Patients With AML

Christoph Röllig, MD, University Hospital Dresden, Dresden, Germany, discusses FLT3 ITD/NPM1 mutation status for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who are in first remission.

Röllig says that it is important to balance relapse risk, as well as risks associated with different consolidation treatments. There are two main options: chemo-consolidation with high dose cytarabine and alogeneic stem cell transplantation. He adds that alogeneic stem cell transplantation is associated with a higher treatment-related mortality and lower relapse rate. With chemo-consolidation, tolerability is better but the relapse rate is higher.

Röllig believes that we are learning more about minimal residual disease (MRD), which will enable physicians to taylor treatment to the level of response in MRD. He concludes that targeted therapies for patients with this mutation status will become available, such as tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs).