Therapies for acute myeloid leukemia in patients ineligible for standard induction chemotherapy: a systematic review.

To review clinical evidence for current and emerging treatments for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who are ineligible for first-line induction chemotherapy. A systematic literature review was performed (28 October 2021) to identify clinical outcomes including overall survival (OS), event-free survival (EFS), relapse-free survival (RFS) and adverse events (AEs). Of 233 references that met prespecified criteria, 26 studies were included. Adding targeted therapies (venetoclax/ivosidenib) to hypomethylating agents (HMAs) yielded better OS hazard ratios (HRs) (0.44-0.66) and EFS HRs (0.33-0.63) compared with other agents. AEs were more frequent with combination therapies than control arms, except with ivosidenib plus azacitidine. Targeted therapy combined with a HMA shows the most promising results in this difficult-to-treat population.