Researchers are developing a series of drug compounds that have shown promise in treating acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive blood cancer that is one of the most lethal cancers. About 19,520 news cases are diagnosed a year, and about 10,670 people a year die from it, according to the American Cancer Society. About 30 percent of AML patients have a mutation caused by a kinase called FLT3, which makes the leukemia more aggressive.