Marcadores asociados a leucemia mieloide aguda y su respuesta frente a fármacos

Abstract

Acute myeloid leukemia is a remarkably heterogeneous blood cancer characterized by the uncontrolled expansion of myeloid progenitor cells from the hematopoietic system. It is the most frequent type of leukemia in adults and the second most common in children. Incidence and mortality rates rise with patients’ age. For this reason, the disease usually affects the population over 65 years of age, who present a 5 – year survival rate less than 13.5 %. Regardless of the increasing knowledge of the molecular pathogenesis of the disease, treatment has not substantially changed in the last few decades. Despite the recent approval of several drugs for AML treatment, all of them are far from being totally effective. In fact, the response to treatments is usually insufficient and patients develop resistance mechanisms, being this deficient effectivity of the different available drugs the main responsible for the disease-associated mortality. In this context, the study of the mechanisms underlying AML drug resistance can be very useful for the identification of biomarkers of treatment response, and for the evaluation of new promising therapeutic strategies that may prevent resistance development or even overcome them if they emerge...