Dr. Erba on Curative Therapy for Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Harry Erba, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Director, Hematologic Malignancy Program, University of Alabama at Birmingham, discusses treating a patient with acute myeloid leukemia with curative intent.

Age alone should not dissuade a physician from treating a patient with curative intent with daunorubicin and cytarabine, Erba says. There is room for a practicing clinician to make a decision, as there are patients with comorbidities and frailties that may not have been treated on studies.

In his practice, Erba selects patients to treat with curative intent with excellent performance status, no significant comorbidities, and AML biology such as core-binding factor translocations, and normal karyotype with nucleophosmin mutations to suggest they may be cured.