Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

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Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is the most common form of leukemia in adults, roughly 20,800 individuals are diagnosed each year, leading to the lowest survival rate of all of the classes of leukemias. It is a classification of cancer of the blood and the bone marrow (the soft fatty material in the cavities of bones, where blood cells are constructed). The average age for this type of leukemia is 65 years or older, and is also more common in males rather than females. Acute Myeloid Leukemia is alleviated in 35-40% of people that are less than 60 years old and 5-15% in people older than 60 years old. (2) If left untreated, it can be terminal, and also it can spread to other parts of the body, counting organs and tissues in just a few short months. …show more content…
In bone marrow, it normally makes blood stem cells that will become mature blood cells over time. A blood stem cell may branch off and become a myeloid stem cell or a lymphoid stem cell. Once developed into a myeloid stem cell, it then becomes one of three types of mature blood cells: Red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets. In Acute Myeloid Leukemia, the myeloid stem cells usually become a type of immature white blood cell, myeloblast, which are abnormal and do not become healthy. (3) A single mutation does not singularly produce leukemia itself, but when the cells essentially “freeze” and avoid discrepancy in its undeveloped state, the result is the uncontrolled growth of an immature leukemic clone of cells. The clinical symptoms of this disease result from these clone cells which dislodge with the development of normal blood cells in the bone marrow. (1) According to an article from the New England Journal of Medicine, Acute Myeloid Leukemia is categorized by a growth in the number of myeloid cells in the marrow and puts a block in their maturation in the earliest stage of development. In many cases, it includes the encouragement of irregular genes through chromosomal translocations. (1). The diagnosis of AML involves the presence of at least 20% leukemic …show more content…
In the study, they enrolled a total of 1,540 patients that were in three clinical trials of concentrated therapy. These patients ages ranged from 18 to 65 years old, they received introduction chemotherapy, while the high- risk patients were presented allogeneic stem-cell relocation. (5) The numerous authors state, “Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is characterized by clonal expansion of undifferentiated myeloid ancestors, resulting in weakened hematopoiesis and bone marrow failure. Although many patients with AML have a response to induction chemotherapy, refractory disease (a disease which does not respond to treatment) is common, and relapse represents the major cause of treatment failure.” (5). The ultimate goal of this study was to identify nonoverlapping subgroups of patients, and to permit a fully genomic classification of

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