Relapsed Acute Myeloid Leukemia – An Assessment of Treatment, Cardiotoxicity and Outcomes
Mentor Name: Kelly Getz
Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is the second most common pediatric blood cancer, and the most threatening. It requires treatment with multiple rounds of chemotherapy. However, these chemotherapy treatments can lead impaired heart function in up to 40% of pediatric patients. This decrease in cardiac function may persist even after treatment ends and can even progress to heart failure. Cardiotoxicity can result in changes to the treatment plan that may be associated with dramatically decreased survival. There is relatively little research on the effects cardiotoxicity has on patient outcomes during relapse, or whether early detection and treatment of cardiac dysfunction leads to better outcomes in pediatric AML patients. The first study will investigate how cardiotoxicity during initial therapy could affect the choice of, or response to, relapse therapies and potentially cause worse overall survival. The second study aims to evaluate whether using cardiac-directed therapies to protect heart function during frontline chemotherapy improves relapse risk and overall survival in AML. It also aims to understand whether any improvements in these two areas are explain by modifications of frontline treatment or preserved cardiac function at the end of treatment.
