Immunotherapy as a Turning Point in the Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Despite recent progress achieved in the management of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), it remains a life-threatening disease with a poor prognosis, particularly in the elderly, having an average 5-year survival of approximately 28%. However, recent evidence suggests that immunotherapy can provide the background for developing personalized targeted therapy to improve the clinical course of AML patients. Our review aimed to assess the immunotherapy effectiveness in AML by discussing the impact of monoclonal antibodies, immune checkpoint inhibitors, chimeric antigen receptor T cells, and vaccines in AML preclinical and clinical studies. ABSTRACT: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a malignant disease of hematopoietic precursors at the earliest stage of maturation, resulting in a clonalproliferation of myoblasts replacing normal hematopoiesis. AML represents one of the most common types of leukemia, mostly affecting elderly patients. To date, standard chemotherapy protocols are only effective in patients at low risk of relapse and therapy-related mortality. The average 5-year overall survival (OS) is approximately 28%. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) improves prognosis but is limited by donor availability, a relatively young age of patients, and absence of significant comorbidities. Moreover, it is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. However, increasing understanding of AML immunobiology is leading to the development of innovative therapeutic strategies. Immunotherapy is considered an attractive strategy for controlling and eliminating the disease. It can be a real breakthrough in the treatment of leukemia, especially in patients who are not eligible forintensive chemotherapy. In this review, we focused on the progress of immunotherapy in the field of AML by discussing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), immune checkpoint inhibitors, chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T cells), and vaccine therapeutic choices.