A new BEAT for AML

With the first collaborative, multidrug trial in a blood cancer, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society aims to dramatically alter the 40-year-old diagnosis and treatment paradigm in first-line acute myelogenous leukemia, and to create a virtuous cycle of identifying new driver mutations that can be matched to targeted agents.

The standard of care in first-line AML consists of four to six cycles of anthracycline-based chemotherapy plus cytarabine. The drugs are started together. Anthracycline is given for the first three days and cytarabine for a full seven days. The regimen, commonly called “seven plus three,” has been in use since the early 1970s...