Overview

Leukemia is a cancer of the blood. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a type of leukemia and is a cancer of the blood-forming tissue in the bone marrow. AML may also be called acute nonlymphocytic leukemia or acute myelogenous leukemia.

Bone marrow is the spongy, red tissue in the inner part of the large bones and is the source of a person’s blood. Normal immature blood cells are called blasts. Blasts mature into one of three different types of blood cells:

• White blood cells, which fight infection in the body
  
  
• Red blood cells, which carry oxygen and other nutrients throughout the body
  
  
• Platelets, which help the blood to clot

In AML, the bone marrow produces large numbers of abnormal cancerous cells, also called blasts or myeloblasts because they look similar to normal immature blast cells. Instead of becoming the three types of normal mature blood cells, the cancerous cells divide rapidly and uncontrollably, are unable to mature and function like normal blast cells, and do not die easily. Eventually, these myeloblasts fill up the bone marrow, preventing normal cells from being produced, and then accumulate in the bloodstream. They can also invade the lymph nodes, brain, skin, liver, kidneys, ovaries (in girls), testicles (in boys), and other organs. AML cells occasionally form a solid mass or tumor, called a chloroma.

Both children and adults can have leukemia. This section is about AML that occurs in children, sometimes called pediatric AML. For information on adult AML, please read the Cancer.Net Guide to Leukemia, Acute Myeloid (AML).

Statistics

In general, leukemia is the most common childhood cancer. AML is the second most common form of leukemia in children, after acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). In 2009, an estimated 885 children ages 0 to 19 in the United States will be diagnosed with AML. Childhood AML is most common during the first two years of life and during the teenage years.

The five-year relative survival rate (the percentage of people who survive at least five years after the cancer is detected, excluding those who die from other diseases) for children with AML is more than 50%.

Cancer survival statistics should be interpreted with caution. These estimates are based on data from thousands of cases of this type of cancer, but the actual risk for a particular individual may differ. It is not possible to tell a person how long he or she will live with AML. Because the survival statistics are measured in five-year intervals, they may not represent advances made in the treatment or diagnosis of this cancer.

Source: American Cancer Society

Find out more about basic cancer terms used in this section.