Update on Optimal Management of Acute Myeloid Leukemia

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Fuad El Rassi, Emory University; Martha Arellano, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2013-08-12
• Publisher: Libertas Academica
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2013 the author(s), publisher and licensee Libertas Academica Ltd.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported
• Final Published Version (URL): http://www.la-press.com/update-on-optimal-management-of-acute-myeloid-leukemia-article-a3826
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Clinical Medicine Insights: Oncology
• ISSN: 1179-5549
• Volume: 7
• Start Page: 181
• End Page: 197
• Grant/Funding Information: Authors disclose no funding sources.
• Keywords: prognosis; management; AML
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, General; Health Sciences, Health Care Management; Health Sciences, Public Health

Abstract

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) represents a malignant accumulation of immature myeloid cells in the marrow, presenting with impaired hematopoiesis and its attendant complications, including bleeding, infection, and organ infiltration. Chromosomal abnormalities remain the most powerful predictors of AML prognosis and help to identify a subgroup with favorable prognosis. However, the majority of AML patients who are not in the favorable category succumb to the disease. Therefore, better efforts to identify those patients who may benefit from more aggressive and investigational therapeutic approaches are needed. Newer molecular markers aim at better characterizing the large group of intermediate-risk patients and to identify newer targets for therapy. A group that has seen little improvement over the years is the older AML group, usually defined as age ≥ 60. Efforts to develop less intensive but equally efficacious therapy for this vulnerable population are underway.