Tag Archive for: AML Newly Diagnosed

What You Should Know About Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

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This podcast was originally published on City of Hope Radio by Guido Marcucci, MD, here.

 

Topic Info: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is characterized by rapidly-developing cancer in the myeloid line of blood cells, which is responsible for producing red blood cells, platelets and several types of white blood cells called granulocytes.

Because AML grows rapidly, it can quickly crowd out normal blood cells, leading to anemia, susceptibility to infections and uncontrolled bleeding.

Due to the aggressive nature of AML, this disease usually requires intensive treatment, which may include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, and stem cell transplantation.

The following represent symptoms typical for AML:

  • Fever with or without an infection
  • Frequent bruising or bleeds that do not clot
  • Leukemia cutis (multiple lesions with a firm or rubbery consistency that may be pink, red, red-brown or blue-violet in color)
  • Night sweats
  • Pain in the bones or joints
  • Pain or feeling of fullness below the ribs
  • Petechiae (flat, pinpoint spots under the skin caused by bleeding)
  • Shortness of breath
  • Weakness or feeling tired

Listen in as Guido Marcucci, MD discusses AML, its symptoms, diagnoses, and treatments.

Early Detection of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

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This podcast was originally published by Cancer Cast (Weill Cornell) here.

 

Pinkal Desai, MD – Speaker Bio

How specific gene mutations can enable prediction of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) up to a decade prior to disease development.

Guest: Pinkal Desai, MD, hematologist and medical oncologist at the Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Leukemia Program.

Host: John Leonard, MD, world-renowned hematologist and medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

AML Treatment Options: What’s Available?

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Dr. Jessica Altman reviews currently available treatments for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), including chemotherapy, stem cell transplant, and clinical trials.

Dr. Jessica Altman is Director of the Acute Leukemia Program at Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. More about Dr. Altman here.

See More From The Fact or Fiction? AML Series

Related Resources

 

Fact or Fiction? AML Treatment and Side Effects Resource Guide

  

What Causes a Gene Mutation?

  

Can AML Be Cured?

Transcript:

Patricia:                         

Dr. Altman, let’s talk a little bit right now about treatments that are currently available for AML. What kinds of things might patients want to familiarize themselves with?

Dr. Jessica Altman:    

So, we are at a point in AML therapy where there’s not just one choice of treatment.

There are a number of choices that depend on patient characteristics, disease characteristics, and patient goals. So, there’s a lot that the physician with their patient and family members take into account and consider when they’re coming up with a therapeutic strategy.

Patricia:          

So, give us a couple of examples. Chemotherapy is one way to treat AML, correct?

Dr. Jessica Altman:    

Correct. So, the treatments all stem from a chemotherapy backbone. And there are more intensive chemotherapy regimens that usually involve a long, in-patient hospitalization and less intensive chemotherapy regimens. Those chemotherapy regimens can sometimes be combined with targeted therapy based on the genomic structure or the mutations present in leukemia cells. 

Patricia:          

Stem cell transplant is also an option as well?

Dr. Jessica Altman:                

Stem cell transplant is an option that is utilized ideally after the leukemia is in remission as a way of maintaining disease control.

And for some patients, that is the best approach for a curative option, and some patients’ leukemia does not require a stem cell transplant.

Patricia:          

Clinical trials available as well for AML, doctor?

Dr. Jessica Altman:    

So, we feel very strongly that the best treatment strategy for most patients is a well-designed, appropriate clinical trial for all phases of AML therapy. It’s because of research and clinical trials over the last number of years that we have had advances and more approvals for the treatments of Acute Myeloid Leukemia.