[History, current status, and future prospects in clinical study of myeloid leukemia]

The fundamental principle of the treatment of AML (acute myeloid leukemia) is "total cell kill. " For remission induction, "response-oriented individualized therapy" was developed in Japan. However, the similar response rate was obtained by "set therapy," which became the present standard regimen. Regarding the post-remission therapy, consolidation therapy is conducted without further long-term maintenance/intensification therapy. For poor-risk patients, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation should be considered. To improve the therapeutic efficacy, the development of molecular targeted therapy will be indispensable. As for CML (chronic myeloid leukemia), the development of imatinib has completely changed the treatment strategy. The eradication of CML stem cells is the next challenging issue.