Novel Targets for Treatment of Adult Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia

The treatment of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) results in long-term disease-free survival in only 30–40% of adults. Conventional chemotherapy is toxic and woefully ineffective. Therefore, novel agents are being investigated. Among these agents are monoclonal antibodies such as rituximab, epratuzumab, and alemtuzumab and targeted therapies such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors, mTOR inhibitors, and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK) inhibitors. This article discusses such novel targets for the treatment of ALL.