New developments in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia: focus on topotecan

Although the prognosis for adults with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) has improved over the past 10 years, overall results remain modest. Current research areas in the treatment of AML include dose-intensive therapy and stem-cell transplantation (SCT), immunotherapy, modulation of leukemia resistance (eg, multidrug resistance [MDR] Inhibitors), differentiation therapy (eg, retinolds), exploitation of different disease pathophysiology (eg, angiogenesis inhibitors, apoptosis-inducing agents), targeted therapy (eg, monoclonal antibodies, gene therapy), and the development of additional active chemotherapeutic agents with different mechanisms of action. Topotecan, a topoisomerase-I Inhibitor, may potentially enhance the activity of standard induction chemotherapy with cytosine arabinoside (cytarabine) and topoisomerase-II inhibitors. Topotecan is being investigated as salvage and front-line therapy for AML in combination with etoposide, cytarabine, or cyclophosphamide. The role that topotecan will eventually play In the treatment of AML is not yet clear, but encouraging results from triple combination induction therapy In patients with unfavorable prognoses warrant further investigation.