AKR1C3 and acute lymphoblastic leukemia: Preclinical studies involving specific AKR1C3 prodrugs, such as AST-006 (TH-3424), have demonstrated cytotoxicity and anti-tumor activities against T-ALL cells in vitro and in vivo with AKR1C3 overexpression (Wang et al., 2020b; He et al., 2021).