About Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML)

About 10,000 people in this country are diagnosed annually with AML. This is a cancer that results from acquired (not inherited) genetic damage. The causes are believed to be environmental, particularly benzenes and radiation.

AML is a disease that effects the developing cells in the bone marrow that become part of the circulating blood. As a result, there is uncontrolled growth of irregular cells called "blasts" and these block the production of normal cells. As a result, the person with AML will usually be both anemic (not enough red cells) and thrombocytopenic (not enough platelets which cause blood to clot). In addition, the production of normal, functioning white cells goes awry and the person is considered neutropenic (without the ability to fight infection). There are various types of AML, each often marked by some particular chromosomal abnormalities.

AML is a rapidly moving disease and it requires immediate treatment upon diagnosis. For all but one subtype, the standard treatment is made up of two components. The first phase, induction, is a combination of chemotherapy agents given continuously over seven days. This usually must be done in the hospital and the patient has to remain in the hospital for some period of weeks after that. If the patient achieves a remission, the blast cells are less than 5% in the bone marrow, consolidation, the second component begins. This is a series of chemotherapy infusions over multiple months.

While some people are able to achieve a sustainable remission (5 years or more) with just this chemotherapy, the majority tend to relapse fairly quickly. For many, bone marrow transplants offer a viable treatment.

http://www.oncolink.upenn.edu/disease/aml/
http://www.acor.org/leukemia/aml.html
http://wwwicic.nci.nih.gov/cgi-bin/srchcgi.exe?DBID=pdq&TYPE=search&SFMT=pdq_statement/1/0/0&Z208=208_01029P#1
http://l3.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_page?item_id=8459
http://www.meds.com/leukemia/points/lect1_toc.html