Efficacy and Safety of Autologous Peptide-induced Active Immunity in AML Maintenance Therapy

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common acute leukemia in adults. While approximately 70% of patients achieve complete remission (CR) with induction chemotherapy, traditional consolidation therapy (predominantly high-dose cytarabine) has a persistently high recurrence rate - nearly 30% at 1 year for low-risk groups and 80% for high-risk groups - with a long-term survival rate \<40%. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) improves survival but is limited by donor matching and patient tolerance, resulting in a transplantation rate \<20%. Clinically, there is an urgent need for a well-tolerated, low hepatotoxic/nephrotoxic maintenance regimen effective for preventing recurrence.

Tumor immunotherapy is a major breakthrough, and neoantigen-based personalized vaccines are a key anti-recurrence direction due to their strong tumor specificity and ability to induce long-term immune memory. However, existing neoantigen vaccines rely on NGS sequencing and bioinformatics for epitope screening, suffering from long development cycles, high costs, proneness to missing cancer-causing mutations, and poor clinical feasibility, hindering widespread use. This study adopts a patented Sino-US innovative technology: in vitro induction of patients' own AML cells to obtain a complete set of tumor antigen peptides for personalized vaccine preparation, circumventing traditional bottlenecks to achieve "full antigen coverage" personalized active immunity.

This study has significant clinical and scientific value: (1) It is the first application of this patented technology in AML maintenance therapy, filling domestic and international research gaps and providing a novel treatment option; (2) Using a randomized controlled design, it compares the efficacy of immunotherapy administered during vs. after consolidation chemotherapy to identify the optimal treatment mode; (3) It screens reliable anti-leukemia immunity monitoring methods and time points, offering evidence-based support for efficacy evaluation and prognostic prediction; (4) It verifies the treatment's safety, laying a foundation for developing low-toxic, high-efficacy AML maintenance regimens, ultimately improving patients' long-term survival and advancing precision immunotherapy for AML.