Results from the Children's Oncology Group have revealed that adding the monoclonal antibody gemtuzumab to standard chemotherapy improves event-free survival in children with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) without excessive toxicity. The AAML0531 phase III trial randomly assigned 1,022 children (average age 10 years) to receive gemtuzumab or a standard treatment regimen, followed by additional chemotherapy for low-risk patients and stem-cell transplantation for high-risk patients. The addition of gemtuzumab did not improve overall survival significantly (74% versus 70%), but was associated with better disease-free survival (61% versus 55%) and reduced relapse risk (33% versus 41%).
References
Gamis, A. S. et al. Gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO) in children with de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML) improves event-free survival (EFS) by reducing relapse risk—results from the randomized phase III Children's Oncology Group (COG) trial, AAML0531 [abstract]. Blood 122, a355 (2013)
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Improving event-free survival in paediatric patients. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 11, 67 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2013.241
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2013.241