Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) occurs when cancerous blood cells grow too fast and crowd out healthy blood cells, preventing them from making enough oxygen-carrying red blood cells or platelets. This can cause anemia, a serious condition that makes you tired and weak because your body isn’t getting enough oxygen. Other symptoms may include easy bruising, bleeding (including nosebleeds or bleeding gums), fever, headache, and bone pains. The disease can also damage the organs in your body, such as your liver or spleen.
Normally, the bone marrow produces blood stem cells (immature cells) that develop into different types of mature blood cells over time. These cells eventually become red blood cells that carry oxygen, white blood cells that fight infection, and platelets that help blood clots stop bleeding. Cancerous blood cells, called blasts, overtake the bone marrow and interfere with these processes. The types of blasts that grow in the bone marrow determine the type of AML you have.
Doctors use blood tests and a physical exam to diagnose AML. They also take a sample of bone marrow to see how many healthy red and white blood cells are there. They also look for a chromosome mutation or change that increases your risk of getting the disease. NYU Langone hematologist-oncologists (doctors who treat blood disorders such as blood cancers) can identify different AML subtypes by examining your cells under a microscope.
The type of chemotherapy your doctors give you depends on your specific AML subtype and whether or not the leukemia cells have spread to the brain and spinal cord. You may also receive radiation therapy to kill cancer cells and prevent them from growing. This treatment can be delivered either inside the body with a tumor-targeted drug or from outside your body using external radiation therapy (also called total-body irradiation). Radiation therapy can also prepare you for a stem cell transplant if your leukemia recurs after treatment.
Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is a fast-growing cancer that starts in the blood stem cells in your bone marrow. You can have chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) or acute myeloid leukemia with a Philadelphia chromosome. This abnormal chromosome is caused by a gene fusion that results in the creation of a new gene with an extra section. You are born with this chromosome, but it can get mutated, or changed, in your blood stem cells. If it mutates, the leukemia cells will grow and multiply out of control. The more leukemia cells you have, the worse your prognosis is. Your prognosis is also affected by your age and the type of AML you have. You may also have a better or worse outcome based on certain chromosomal abnormalities or mutations that increase your risk of the disease. For example, having the t(8;21) or t(15;17) chromosome translocation is associated with a poorer prognosis. Your prognosis is also influenced by your hematological response to treatment and the presence of any chromosomal aberrations or mutations that were present at diagnosis.
