Is there a role for differentiating therapy in non-APL AML?

Differentiation therapy with all-trans retinoic acid has been a very successful therapeutic strategy in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), but the value of differentiation therapy in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains to be determined. A number of current treatments, such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors, cytokines, and epigenetic agents, induce differentiation of leukemic cells to some extent, but differentiation is not the main goal of these treatments. Forcing expression of certain transcription factors, such as C/EBP, has also been useful in inducing differentiation in cell lines and in murine models, but an effective way to force expression of these genes in humans is yet to be discovered.