The potential for antitumor vaccination in acute myelogenous leukemia

While many advances have been made in the treatment of patients with cancer, significant challenges that remain include tumor cell resistance and the toxicity associated with currently used intensive chemotherapeutic regimens. This is particularly true for patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Most patients with AML usually are able to achieve complete remission, but only a minority obtain long-term survival. In addition, much of the success achieved has been due to escalation of chemotherapeutic dosing and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. There is thus a great need for improved therapies which would ideally be able to circumvent drug resistance and more specifically target leukemic cells. Advances in immunobiology over the past century have led to new hope for the development of immune mediated vaccine therapies for patients with cancer. This review focuses on the development of vaccine approaches for treatment of AML and some of the potential advantages and problems.