New Treatment Prolongs Lives of Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia by Colleen Fleiss on January 23, 2021 at 11:31 PM In patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), administering the cancer drug azacitidine as a maintenance treatment had improved overall survival, according to a randomized, international phase 3 clinical trial for which Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian are trial sites. This is the first time a maintenance treatment for AML has shown such a strong benefit for patients, and it is already being adopted as part of standard care. The results, which were published Dec. 24 in the New England Journal of Medicine, led to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval in September 2020 of oral azacitidine, known by the trade name Onureg, as a maintenance therapy for AML.