Shehab Mohamed, Resident Doctor at Hamad Medical Corporation, Hematologist at Hamad Medical Corporation, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Here we go!
One of my favorite projects was finally published in Oncology.
This study started with a simple but important clinical question that frequently arises in leukemia practice: Should standard 7+3 remain the default intensive induction regimen for all fit patients with newly diagnosed AML, or is there a role for FLAG-based induction in selected frontline patients?
At major leukemia centers, including MD Anderson Cancer Center and other academic institutions, FLAG-based regimens are increasingly incorporated into frontline treatment strategies for selected patients. However, comparative evidence remains limited and largely retrospective.
In our systematic review and meta-analysis, which included more than 500 patients across available comparative studies, FLAG-based induction was associated with a significantly higher overall response rate compared with standard 7+3, without a significant increase in early mortality. Patients receiving FLAG-based induction were also more likely to proceed to consolidation therapy, while bridge-to-transplant rates were comparable between treatment approaches.
While these findings do not suggest that FLAG should replace 7+3 as the universal frontline standard, they support FLAG-based induction as a reasonable and potentially advantageous option in selected patients, particularly those with adverse-risk disease where achieving deeper initial disease control may be critical.
Prospective randomized studies are still needed, but until then, these data help inform an important question many leukemia physicians face in everyday practice.
A sincere thank you to all co-authors, mentors, and collaborators who contributed to this work. Of course first author Mohammed Elmourtada Abdulgayoom and Abdulrahman Al-Mashdali.
Proud to represent the National Center for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR), Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Qatar University, and our collaborators.
What is your current frontline induction approach for fit AML?”
Title: FLAG-Based Versus Standard 7+3 Induction Therapy in Adults with Newly Diagnosed Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Mohammed Abdulgayoom, Soha Aboukhalaf, Mahmoud Osman, Nada H. Soliman, Samreen Mumtaz Rahmoon, Marrita Rabadi, Nuha Fituri, Abdulrahman Al-Mashdali, Rasha Kaddoura, Shehab Mohamed
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