Is there a standard of care for relapsed AML?

Despite advances in treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the prognosis for patients with relapsed disease is extremely poor. The median overall survival for patients with relapsed AML ranges from 4-6 months and long-term survival from the time of relapse ranges from 5%-20%. Much of the difficulty in establishing a standard of care for relapsed AML is that the disease is clinically and genomically diverse. Nevertheless, significant progress has been made over the past 12 months with the approval of several agents, and the expectation is that additional therapies will be available soon. A brief review follows on the progress made in establishing a standard of care for relapsed AML.