What is FLT3 positive AML? What is gilteritinib?

FLT3 positive AML is AML

where the patient has a mut—or
the patient's disease has a mutation in FLT3.

So FLT3 mutations are found in
about 30% of patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

The reason it's important to know
if you have a FLT3 mutation is because there are

The reason it's important to know
if you have a FLT3 mutation is because there are

specific targeted therapies
that can target the FLT3 mutation

and that can potentially lead
to improved outcomes.

If you have this particular mutation.

Gilteritinib is a very potent targeted
inhibitor of mutant FLT3

and just to cut to the chase,
in a big randomized controlled trial

that looked at patients
with relapsed and refractory acute

myeloid leukemia that had a mutation, 
either, that had a mutation in FLT3.

myeloid leukemia that had a mutation, 
either, that had a mutation in FLT3.

It was proven that giving gilteritinib

led to improved survival over
giving standard chemotherapy.

And that's important

because gilteritinib is also an oral medication
that is easy to take, has very few side effects.

because gilteritinib is also an oral medication
that is easy to take, has very few side effects.

So if you have a drug
that number one is better in terms of survival.

So if you have a drug
that number one is better in terms of survival.

And that drug also doesn't have bad side effects.

That's a winner in, in my view, and in the view
of many or probably all of my patients.

In order to understand how gilteritinib works,
you need to understand what happens

when you don't have gilteritinib,
when you just have the FLT3 mutation.

So when you just have a FLT3 mutation in your
AML cells, what it does is it essentially turns

So when you just have a FLT3 mutation in your
AML cells, what it does is it essentially turns

a switch on in those AML cells
to tell them to constantly divide.

It's kind of like if you had a light switch
that you just couldn't turn off.

There is a short circuit
and you couldn't get it to go off.

So how do you get it to go off then?

You need to come up with a way
to block that switch from being activated.

What gilteritinib does is
it blocks the activation of that abnormal switch

and that keeps the cells from dividing
and dividing and dividing causes those cells

and that keeps the cells from dividing
and dividing and dividing causes those cells

to differentiate and die.

And that's how the leukemia goes into remission.