Methods of stratifying patients for treatment with retinoic acid receptor-alpha agonists

Abstract

The invention provides methods that define cellular populations that are sensitive to RARA agonists and identify patient subgroups that will benefit from treatment with RARA agonists. The invention also provides packaged pharmaceutical compositions that comprise a RARA agonist and instructions for determining if such agonist is suitable for use in treatment.

1 . A method of selecting and treating a human subject suffering from non-acute promyelocytic leukemia acute myelogenous leukemia (non-APL AML), the method comprising:
 a. selecting the subject if a sample of diseased cells from the subject has a level of retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARA) mRNA equal to or above a predetermined threshold, wherein the RARA mRNA is transcribed from a RARA gene that encodes a functional RARA gene and specifically excludes gene fusions that comprise all or a portion of the RARA gene; and   b. administering to the selected subject an amount of tamibarotene effective to treat the disease.   
     
     
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