At the German Cancer Congress 2016, held in Berlin, Germany, from 24 to 27 February 2016, Christoph Röllig, MD, from the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden, Germany, reviews the clinical development of new treatment options for patients with acute myeloid leukemia, including tyrosine kinase inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy.