1. Too Many Abnormal Cells
Your bone marrow makes immature cells called stem cells; these develop into a myeloid stem cell or a lymphoid stem cell. The myeloid cells develop into red blood cells, myeloblasts and platelets. These myeloblasts turn into white blood cells that fight infection and disease. When too many of these myeloblasts are abnormal, you have a condition called acute myeloid leukemia, or AML.
2. Why So Many Abnormal Cells?
Possible risk factors include smoking after age 60, having previous chemotherapy or radiation therapy, a childhood condition of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), exposure to atomic bomb radiation or the chemical benzene, or a history of a blood disorder.
3. Diagnosing AML Cancer
Symptoms include bruising easily, fevers for no reason, lots of bleeding from minor scrapes and cuts, loss of appetite and shortness of breath. See your doctor if you have any of these symptoms. Your doctor will perform a bone marrow biopsy and a complete red and white blood cell count. This will give your doctor an idea of how many abnormal cells you have. To check if the cancer has spread to other parts of your body, your doctor will order a lumbar puncture to take a sample of cerebral spinal fluid.
4. Treatment for Abnormal Cells
A therapy called remission induction therapy kills the leukemia cells in your blood and bone marrow. The doctors call this remission induction therapy because it puts the acute lymphoblastic leukemia into remission. There are four types of standard remission induction therapy treatments. They use chemotherapy for most cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia to kill all of the abnormal myeloblasts with injections or oral medicine. Doctors order radiation therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia that has spread to the central nervous system. Bone marrow transplants are another treatment option used in conjunction with chemotherapy when your body cannot make enough healthy cells to keep up with the destruction of the abnormal and healthy cells. Experimental drugs that kill only the leukemia cells are an alternative to the other standard treatments.
5. Maintenance Treatments
Continue with maintenance therapy with your acute myeloid leukemia in remission. Your doctor watches to make sure there are no cells that become active again. This happens on a frequent basis for months and then can die down after a couple of years.
