Postremission Therapy for AML

A major challenge in the treatment of children with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is to prolong the duration of the initial remission with additional chemotherapy or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). In practice, most patients are treated with intensive chemotherapy after remission is achieved, as only a small subset have a matched-family donor (MFD). Such therapy includes some of the drugs used in induction while also introducing non-cross–resistant drugs and commonly high-dose cytarabine. Studies in adults with AML have demonstrated that consolidation with a high-dose cytarabine regimen improves outcome compared to consolidation with a standard-dose cytarabine regimen, particularly in patients with inv(16) and t(8;21) AML subtypes.[1,2] Randomized studies evaluating the contribution of high-dose cytarabine to postremission therapy have not been conducted in children, but studies employing historical controls suggest that consolidation with a high-dose cytarabine regimen improves outcome compared with less intensive consolidation therapies.[3,4,5] The optimal number of postremission courses of therapy remains unclear, but appears to require at least three courses of intensive therapy, including the induction course.[6] A United Kingdom Medical Research Council (MRC) study randomly assigned adult and pediatric patients to four versus five courses of intensive therapy. Five courses did not show an advantage in relapse-free and overall survival (OS).[7,8][Level of evidence: 1iiA]

The use of HSCT in first remission has been under evaluation since the late 1970s, and evidence-based appraisals concerning indications for autologous and allogeneic HSCT have been published.[9] Prospective trials of transplantation in children with AML suggest that overall 60% to 70% of children with HLA-matched donors available who undergo allogeneic HSCT during their first remission experience long-term remissions.[10,11] Prospective trials of allogeneic HSCT compared with chemotherapy and/or autologous HSCT have frequently demonstrated a superior disease-free survival (DFS) for patients who were assigned to allogeneic transplantation based on availability of a family 6/6 or 5/6 HLA-matched donor in adults and children.[10,11,12,13,14,15,16] Several large cooperative group clinical trials for children with AML have found no benefit for autologous HSCT over intensive chemotherapy.[10,11,12,14]

Because of the improved outcome in patients with favorable prognostic features receiving contemporary regimens, it is now recommended that this group of patients receive an MFD HSCT only after first relapse and the achievement of a second complete remission (CR).[9,17,18]

While there is a clear movement away from transplantation in first remission using matched family donors in pediatric patients with AML that has favorable prognostic features, there is evidence suggesting an advantage for allogeneic HSCT in patients with intermediate-risk characteristics. A large intent-to-treat analysis of 472 young adults treated on Bordeaux Grenoble Marseille Toulouse (BGMT) studies showed a survival benefit from allogeneic HSCT in intermediate-risk patients (all patients not favorable or unfavorable), while patients with favorable-risk disease (t(15;17), t(8:21), or inv(16)) did not appear to benefit. Of note, there were insufficient numbers in the study to determine whether patients with unfavorable-risk disease (complex karyotype (=5 cytogenetic findings), del(5q), monosomy 5 or 7, 3q rearrangements, t(9;22), t(6;9), or 11q23 rearrangements, except t(9;11)) benefit from this approach.[19] A second study combining the results of the POG-8821, CCG-2891, COG-2961, and MRC-Leuk-AML-10-Child studies confirmed an advantage for allogeneic HSCT in patients with intermediate-risk AML but not favorable-risk as defined above or poor-risk as defined below. However, again, there were insufficient numbers in this study to assess the role of matched family member transplantation in patients with poor-risk AML, defined by del(5q), monosomy 5 or 7, or >15% blasts after first induction for POG/CCG studies as well as including 3q abnormalities and complex cytogenetics in the MRC study.[20]

Many, but not all, pediatric clinical trial groups prescribe allogeneic HSCT for high-risk patients in first remission.[18] For example, the Children's Oncology Group (COG) frontline AML clinical trial (COG-AAML1031) prescribes allogeneic HSCT in first remission only for patients with predicted high risk of treatment failure based on unfavorable cytogenetic and molecular characteristics and elevated end-of-induction MRD levels. On the other hand, the AML-BFM 2004 clinical trial restricts allogeneic HSCT to patients in second CR and to refractory AML based on results from their AML-BFM 98 study showing no improvement in DFS or OS for high-risk patients receiving allogeneic HSCT.[18] Because definitions of high-, intermediate-, and low-risk AML are evolving due to the ongoing association of molecular characteristics of the tumor with outcome (e.g., FLT-3 internal tandem duplications, WT1 mutations, and NPM1 mutations) as well as response to therapy (e.g., MRD assessments postinduction therapy), further analysis of subpopulations of patients treated with allogeneic HSCT will be an ongoing need in current and future clinical trials.

Maintenance chemotherapy has been shown to be effective in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL).[21] In other subtypes, there are no data that demonstrate that maintenance therapy given after intensive postremission therapy significantly prolongs remission duration. Maintenance chemotherapy failed to show benefit in two randomized studies,[3,22] and maintenance therapy with interleukin-2 also proved ineffective.[6]

Treatment Options Under Clinical Evaluation

The following are examples of national and/or institutional clinical trials that are currently being conducted. Information about ongoing clinical trials is available from the NCI Web site.

• AML08(Clofarabine Plus Cytarabine Versus Conventional Induction Therapy and a Study of Natural Killer Cell Transplantation in Newly Diagnosed AML): St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is conducting a randomized trial for children with newly diagnosed AML in which the efficacy of postchemotherapy NK cell transplantation is being assessed after five cycles of chemotherapy.
• COG-AAML1031 (Bortezomib and Sorafenib Tosylate in Patients With Newly Diagnosed AML With or Without Mutations): This is a phase III COG study designed to answer the question of whether the addition of the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib to chemotherapy during induction and postremission therapy improves outcome; in addition, this study will test whether the addition of sorafenib to chemotherapy along with HSCT for patients with high-allelic ratio FLT3-ITD–positive AML improves outcome compared to historical controls. This study will also utilize MRD determination at the end of induction, in addition to cytogenetics and molecular markers, to stratify postremission therapy.

Current Clinical Trials

Check for U.S. clinical trials from NCI's list of cancer clinical trials that are now accepting patients with childhood acute myeloid leukemia in remission. The list of clinical trials can be further narrowed by location, drug, intervention, and other criteria.

General information about clinical trials is also available from the NCI Web site.

References:

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3. Wells RJ, Woods WG, Buckley JD, et al.: Treatment of newly diagnosed children and adolescents with acute myeloid leukemia: a Childrens Cancer Group study. J Clin Oncol 12 (11): 2367-77, 1994.
4. Wells RJ, Woods WG, Lampkin BC, et al.: Impact of high-dose cytarabine and asparaginase intensification on childhood acute myeloid leukemia: a report from the Childrens Cancer Group. J Clin Oncol 11 (3): 538-45, 1993.
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