Aggressive natural killer cell leukemia: diagnosis, treatment recommendations, and emerging therapies

Aggressive natural killer cell leukemia (ANKL) is a rare hematologic malignancy characterized by the EBV-driven proliferation of mature natural killer cells. It mostly frequently affects younger adults and has a fulminant course with a median overall survival of 2 months. Challenges in managing this disease include an aggressive clinical course, hematologic complications, limited clinical evidence, and a lack of consensus on therapeutic strategies.

Here, authors reviewed the key aspects of the epidemiology and current understandings of the molecular pathogenesis of ANKL. The available clinical evidence and proposed diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms in treating ANKL are discussed. Currently, the only potential cure is induction therapy with L-asparaginase-based combined chemotherapy regimens, followed by allogeneic hematologic stem transplant. However, options are extremely limited in the relapsed/refractory setting. Recently, international efforts have been made to understand the aberrant molecular pathways of ANKL and identify potential drug targets for this disease; PD-1 inhibitors, EBV-specific cytotoxic lymphocyte therapy, BCL-2 inhibitors, and JAK2 inhibitors in combination with other agents have been shown to have promising potential in treating this aggressive disease.

When clinical trials are not available, a personalized approach using next-generation sequencing results should be encouraged in the relapse/refractory setting.