Dendritic cell vaccine as maintenance therapy for AML

Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) can be brought into remission in more than 60% of patients treated with intensive chemotherapy, but relapse is still a problem in a large proportion of patients with this diagnosis. Relapse is associated with the disease that is more difficult to treat and with a high degree of treatment failure, so it is an important goal that the treatment given in the first time contributes to the lowest possible risk of relapse.

A schematic study overview

Allogeneic stem cell transplantation is an option for many but is not applied for everyone due to the high risk compared to other strategies or conditions in the patient themselves which mean that such treatment cannot be carried out. There are several possible alternative strategies under trial, including maintenance treatment with drugs or cell therapy. In this study, dendritic cells were given to patients in the first remission who were not eligible for allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Blood was harvested from the patients and dendritic cells were produced for each individual patient with leukemia-associated molecules, in this case WT1 and PRAME. Twenty patients were included in the study and treated over two years. Eleven of 20 patients were in continued remission at the end of the study. Of the six patients who relapsed, four could be put into remission and are undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation. After five years of observation, 75% of patients were alive, including 70% who are older than 60 years. The treatment was very well tolerated and promises long-term results.