Acute Myeloid Leukemia Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Acute Myeloid Leukemia, including details on aml, symptoms, treatment, information.

Advances in the understanding of susceptibility to treatment-related acute myeloid leukaemia.

Seedhouse C, Russell N

Department of Academic Haematology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham University Hospitals, Nottingham, UK. claire.seedhouse@nottingham.ac.uk

Treatment-related acute myeloid leukaemia (t-AML) is a devastating complication following exposure to the cytotoxic and genotoxic agents used to treat a primary malignancy. Whilst the incidence of t-AML is rising, it still only occurs in a minority of patients who have received chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy treatment and hence it is important to identify factors that may confer susceptibility to the development of the condition. This paper reviews the literature and discusses the advances and limitations in our understanding of susceptibility factors to t-AML. In particular, it concentrates upon genetic polymorphisms in detoxification genes and in genes belonging to the major DNA repair pathways. This review also considers more novel susceptibility factors, such as those proposed to determine stem cell number. Increased understanding of t-AML susceptibility may enable steps to be taken to prevent its development and increase the effectiveness of treatment of the disease.

Published 1 June 2007 in Br J Haematol, 137(6): 513-29.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Acute Myeloid Leukemia Research Today. All Rights Reserved.