Novel agents and regimens for acute myeloid leukemia: 2009 ASH annual meeting highlights

Prognostic markers, such as NPM1, Flt3-ITD, and cytogenetic abnormalities have made it possible to formulate aggressive treatment plans for unfavorable acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, the long-term survival of AML with unfavorable factors remains unsatisfactory. The latest data indicate that the standard dose of daunorubicin (DNR) at 45 mg/m2 is inferior to high dose 90 mg/m2 for induction therapy. The rates of complete remission and overall survival are significantly better in the high dose induction regimen. New regimens exploring the new liposomal encapsulation of Ara-C and DNR as well as addition of gemtuzumab ozogamicin monoclonal antibody have been studied. New agents, including the nucleoside analogues (clofarabine, sapacitabine, elacytarabine), FLT3 inhibitor (sorafenib), farnesyl-transferase inhibitor (tipifarnib), histone deacetylase inhibitor (vorinostat), lenalidomide, as well as DNA methyltransferase inhibitors (decitabine, azacitidine), were recently reported for AML treatment in the 2009 ASH annual meeting. This review also summarizes the updates of the clinical trials on novel agents including voreloxin, AS1413, behenoylara-C, ARRY520, ribavirin, AZD1152, AZD6244, and terameprocol (EM-1421) from the 2009 ASH annual meeting

FLT3 inhibitors in acute myeloid leukemia

Abstract FLT3 mutations are one of the most common findings in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). FLT3 inhibitors have been in active clinical development. Midostaurin as the first-in-class FLT3 inhibitor has been approved for treatment of patients with FLT3-mutated AML. In this review, we summarized the preclinical and clinical studies on new FLT3 inhibitors, including sorafenib, lestaurtinib, sunitinib, tandutinib, quizartinib, midostaurin, gilteritinib, crenolanib, cabozantinib, Sel24-B489, G-749, AMG 925, TTT-3002, and FF-10101. New generation FLT3 inhibitors and combination therapies may overcome resistance to first-generation agents

Robust Measurement-Driven Cardinality Balance Multi-Target Multi-Bernoulli Filter

The multi-target tracking filter under the Bayesian framework has strict requirements on the prior information of the target, such as detection probability density, clutter density, and target initial position information. This paper proposes a novel robust measurement-driven cardinality balance multi-target multi-Bernoulli filter (RMD-CBMeMBer) for solving the multiple targets tracking problem when the detection probability density is unknown, the background clutter density is unknown, and the target’s prior position information is lacking. In RMD-CBMeMBer filtering, the target state is first extended, so that the extended target state includes detection probability, kernel state, and indicators of target and clutter. Secondly, the detection probability is modeled as a Beta distribution, and the clutter is modeled as a clutter generator that is independent of each other and obeys the Poisson distribution. Then, the detection probability, kernel state, and clutter density are jointly estimated through filtering. In addition, the correlation function (CF) is proposed for creating new Bernoulli component (BC) by using the measurement information at the previous moment. Numerical experiments have verified that the RMD-CBMeMBer filter can solve the multi-target tracking problem under the condition of unknown target detection probability, unknown background clutter density and inadequate prior position information of the target. It can effectively estimate the target detection probability and the clutter density

Unambiguous Forward-Looking SAR Imaging on HSV-R Using Frequency Diverse Array

It is a challenge to realize wide swath imaging due to the conflict between Doppler ambiguity and range ambiguity for hypersonic vehicle (HSV) radar. In addition, there are many conditions requiring the forward-looking imaging. In a forward-looking synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system, left–right ambiguity arises, since two symmetrical targets have the same Doppler frequency magnitude. After selecting an appropriate pulse repetition frequency (PRF) to avoid Doppler ambiguity, we only need to solve the range ambiguity and left–right ambiguity. To handle these issues, this paper proposes an approach to resolve the range ambiguity and left–right ambiguity using the frequency diverse array (FDA). With the range-angle-dependent property of the transmit steering vector, FDA can distinguish the range ambiguous echoes in the spatial frequency domain. By performing transmit beamforming after range compensation, the echo from the desired range region can be extracted from ambiguous echoes. Then, the back projection (BP) algorithm is used to achieve imaging. Next, the echoes of all channels are processed by two receive beamformers, which are designed for the right and left sides, respectively. With the aforementioned procedures, an unambiguous image can be obtained. Simulation results have verified the effectiveness of the proposed approach

An Efficient Method for Ground Maneuvering Target Refocusing and Motion Parameter Estimation Based on DPT–KT–MFP

The image of ground maneuvering targets may be defocused due to the Doppler ambiguity, high-order range migration (RM), and Doppler frequency migration (DFM) caused by the target’s complex motions in a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system. To settle these problems, an efficient algorithm based on discrete polynomial-phase transform (DPT), keystone transform (KT), and matched filtering processing (MFP) is presented for ground maneuvering target refocusing and motion parameter estimation in this paper. Firstly, the DPT is applied to transform the cubic phase into the quadratic phase and simultaneously eliminate the quadratic RM, cubic RM, and quadratic DFM. Furthermore, the Doppler ambiguity containing Doppler center blur and Doppler spectrum ambiguity is also dealt with effectively by introducing a very small fixed lay time after DPT operation. Then, the KT is performed to correct the linear RM. After that, the matched filtering function related to the target’s equivalent third-order coefficient is constructed to compensate for the residual linear DFM in the range-time and slow-time domain. Lastly, a well-refocused image of the maneuvering target can be acquired, and the target’s motion parameters can be estimated effectively. The proposed algorithm has high computational efficiency and possesses favorable refocusing performance and motion parameter estimation precision. Simulation and real data processing results prove the effectiveness of the presented algorithm