Treating Pediatric Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia in India – Key Challenges and Lessons Learned

Excerpt

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APML) is an uncommon subtype of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) among children with scarce literature available on treatment outcomes. In this regard, the recent article by Srinivasan et al. published in IJP presents important data on the outcome of pediatric APML treated at a tertiary care centre in India [1]. APML is known to be uniquely sensitive to differentiating agents like all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) and arsenic trioxide (ATO). The use of ATO in APML has been derived from research conducted based on the traditional knowledge of Chinese medicine. This is one of the examples which highlights how knowledge derived from traditional and complementary medicine may augment modern healthcare research. Systematic and rigorous studies on traditional remedies may open up newer options of treatment in medicine. Indeed, the coronavirus disease-19 pandemic offered a unique situation when research on traditional and complementary medicine was extensively conducted in countries like India and China [2]. …