AML - Prognosis
Acute Myeloid Leukemia can be controlled and sometimes cured. Its prognosis depends on a variety of factors that is patient-specific.
AML can be kept in remission for a long period of time or even cured in some adults. Depending on certain factors such as, the characteristics of the leukemia cells. Some patients have a better prognosis in comparison to others.
- Adults below 65 years 5-year survival rate - about 33%
- Adults above 65 years - 4% only
- Many people who live much longer than the average 5 years
The prognosis of a patient depends on the following factors:
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- Patient’s age and race - Younger patients and Caucasians have a good prognosis, while patients older than 60 years and patients of African- American descent have a poor prognosis
- Subtype of AML - M3 has good prognosis while the M7 type has poor prognosis
- Patient’s response to therapy
- AML that follows myelodysplastic syndrome or myeloproliferative diseases has a poor prognosis
- Elevated lactate dehydrogenase levels has a poor prognosis
- Cytogenetics plays an important role in predicting the progress of an AML patient as represented in the table below:
