Updates in immunotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common acute leukemia among adults with an overall poor prognosis. For 40 years there has been minimal improvement in treatment beyond induction chemotherapy and consolidation with chemotherapy or allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Increased understanding of immune system involvement in tumor growth and destruction has led to incredible success with multiple malignancies treated with immunotherapy. AML is now being heavily researched with these revolutionary techniques, encountering many challenges in treatment related to myeloid line aplasia, immune evasion, and other on and off target toxicities. This is a review of current methods including vaccinations, monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs), chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR T cells) and checkpoint inhibitors.