Targeted treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Abstract

Aisha Masood1, Taimur Sher2, Aneel Paulus2, Kena C Miller2, Kasyapa S Chitta3, Asher Chanan-Khan4 1The Tisch Cancer Institute, Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 2Department of Medicine, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, 3Department of Molecular Targets and Experimental Therapeutics, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, New York, NY, 4Division of Hematology/Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA Abstract: The treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has evolved over the last few decades. Recognition has increased of several key components of CLL biology currently manipulated for therapeutics. A milestone in the treatment of CLL was reached with the incorporation of immunotherapy with conventional chemotherapy. The fludarabine/cyclophosphamide/rituximab combination has demonstrated survival advantage for the first time in the treatment of CLL. Several other biological compounds are being explored with the hope of improving responses, impacting survival, and ultimately curing CLL. Important agents being tested are targeted on CLL surface molecules and their ligands, signal transduction protein and oncogenes. This review provides a brief summary of the recent advances made in preclinical and clinical investigation of selected promising therapeutic agents, which lead the target-directed therapeutic approach. Keywords: CLL, Akt inhibitors, Bcl-2 inhibitors, cyclin d kinase inhibitors, heat shock protein inhibitors, immunomodulatory drugs, monoclonal antibodies