THE POTENTIAL FOR ANTITUMOR VACCINATION IN ACUTE MYELOGENOUS LEUKEMIA

While many advances have been made in the treatment of patients with c ancer, significant challenges that remain include tumor cell resistanc e and the toxicity associated with currently used intensive chemothera peutic regimens. This is particularly true for patients with acute mye logenous leukemia (AML). Most patients with AML usually are able to ac hieve complete remission, but only a minority obtain long-term surviva l In addition much of the success achieved has been due to escalation of chemotherapeutic dosing and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation . There is thus a great need for improved therapies which would ideall y be able to circumvent drug resistance and more specifically target l eukemic cells. Advances in immunobiology over the past century have le d to new hope for the development of immune-mediated vaccine therapies for patients with cancer. This review focuses on the development of v accine approaches for treatment of AML and some of the potential advan tages and problems.