Venetoclax and low-dose cytarabine induced complete remission in a patient with high-risk acute myeloid leukemia: a case report

Abstract

Conventional combination therapies have not resulted in considerable progress in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Elderly patients with AML and poor risk factors have grave prognosis. Midostaurin has been recently approved for the treatment of FLT-3-mutated AML. Venetoclax, a BCL-2 inhibitor, has been approved for the treatment of relapsed and/or refractory chronic lymphoid leukemia. Clinical trials on applying venetoclax in combination with cytarabine and other agents to treat various hematological malignancies are currently underway. Here, we present a case of a male patient with poor performance status and who developed AML following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant for high-risk myelodysplasia. The patient with high risk AML achieved complete response to the combined treatment regimen of low-dose cytarabine and venetoclax. Furthermore, we reviewed current clinical trials on the use of venetoclax for hematological malignancies.

Keywords

venetoclax / cytarabine / AML / leukemia

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Acknowledgements

This project was partly supported by the Zhengzhou University Training Grant (BL) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81470287, YPS). BL is a recipient of 2017 CAHON Young Investigator Award (www.cahon.org).

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Bingshan Liu, Roshni Narurkar, Madhura Hanmantgad, Wahib Zafar, Yongping Song, and Delong Liu declare that they have no conflict of interest. Informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of all related materials.

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