Treatment of Older Patients With Newly Diagnosed AML Unfit for Traditional Therapy

Older patients with acute myeloid leukemia represent at least one half of those with the disease for whom randomized clinical trials of new treatments are in development. These patients represent an appropriate population in which to evaluate new treatments against the current standards of care, which could be azacitidine, decitabine, or low-dose cytarabine. However, despite the identification of treatments that can deliver a worthwhile increase in remission, none has yet delivered a survival superiority when assessed in a randomized setting, although some recent efforts provide encouragement.