Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

Acute myeloid leukemia, otherwise referred to as AML, is a catastrophic disease affecting platelets and various white blood cells such as granulocytes, monocytes. Left untreated, leukemic cells take over the bloodstream, spreading and accumulating in the bone marrow, replacing normal blood cells. This growth can spread to the liver, spleen, skin, or central nervous system.

Every year, approximately 500 children are diagnosed with AML, and AML is diagnosed in about 20 percent of children with leukemia. AML is the most common type of second malignancy (a different or second cancer found in a patient previously treated for cancer). With treatment and therapy, about 60 percent of children with AML can achieve long-term remissions with chemotherapy or stem cell transplantation, and approximately 80 to 90 percent of children with acute myeloid leukemia attain remissions, or a prolonged absence of leukemic cells. Researchers have identified a great number of influencing factors that attribute to the cause of AML. For example, an increased incidence of leukemia has been found among people exposed to large amounts of radiation and other environmental toxins and chemicals such as benzene.

Currently, the most common form of therapy for children with AML is chemotherapy. But for those patients possibly at a higher-risk for relapse or those resistant to other treatments, allogeneic stem cell transplantation is the preferred treatment. Allogeneic transplants are stem cells harvested from the bone marrow, cord blood or peripheral blood of a donor. Current clinical trials include: intensive use of chemotherapy plus stem cell transplantation; clofarabine, a novel agent for the treatment of AML; natural killer cell transplantation; treatment that is based on the specific subtype of AML and on the response to therapy; the monitoring of minimal residual disease by flow-cytometric and molecular techniques; investigation of genetic abnormalities in AML using novel methods.