New agents in the treatment of acute lymphocytic leukaemia

The overall prognosis of adult patients with acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL) has improved significantly over the past few decades. Combined modality strategies (e.g. chemotherapy used with targeted therapies such as monoclonal antibodies or tyrosine kinase inhibitors) may improve long-term disease-free survival. Still, most patients succumb to complications of disease progression, with current long-term disease-free survival rates of 30-45% overall. Thus, either new strategies or refinements of old ones are needed to improve the long-term prognosis. An increasing number of unique active new chemotherapeutic and biological agents are available for study. This chapter reviews new agents with the potential to be incorporated into therapeutic strategies for the treatment of ALL.