Disease Information

Leukemias / Lymphomas: Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

Alternate Names: AML, non-lymphoid, myeloblastic, granulocytic, myelocytic leukemia

Definition

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML ) affects various white blood cells including granulocytes, monocytes and platelets. Leukemic cells accumulate in the bone marrow, replace normal blood cells and can spread to the liver, spleen, skin, or central nervous system.

Incidence

• Approximately 500 children are diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in the United States each year.
• AML is diagnosed in about 20 percent of children with leukemia.
• AML is the most common second malignancy (a different or second cancer found in a patient previously treated for cancer) in children treated for malignancies.

Influencing Factors

There is a greater incidence of leukemia among people exposed to large amounts of radiation and certain chemicals (e.g. benzene).

Survival Rates

Although approximately 80 to 90 percent of children with acute myeloid leukemia attain remissions (absence of leukemic cells), some of those patients have later recurrences. About 70 percent of children with AML achieve long-term remissions with chemotherapy or stem cell transplantation.

Treatment Strategies

• Chemotherapy is the most common form of therapy for children with AML.
• Allogeneic stem cell (harvested from bone marrow, cord blood or peripheral blood) transplantation is preferred treatment for those patients with AML who are at a high risk of relapse or who have disease that is resistant to other treatments. Allogeneic transplants use stem cells from a donor.

Current Research

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has committed substantial resources to study the fundamental mechanisms of acute myeloid leukemia. In addition, St. Jude investigators are trying innovative forms of treatment to improve the outcome of this deadly disease. 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.

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