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Acute myeloid leukaemia

Acute myeloid leukaemia(AML)

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)

Acute myeloid leukaemia is a form of blood cancer. This form of cancer develops in the bone marrow. Another word for blood cancer is leukaemia. The acute myeloid leukaemia abbreviation is AML.
AML is the most common form of acute adult leukaemia. The disease also occurs in children.

Bone marrow and blood cells

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How does acute leukaemia develop?

Under a microscope, healthy bone marrow looks varied. It is a combination of mature blood cells of all 3 types and cells that are still in development.

No outburst

Acute myeloid leukaemia has resulted in a number of changes in hereditary material (DNA). These changes are called mutations. This does not excite certain white blood cells in the bone marrow. And is the bone marrow going to produce deviating blood cells: malignant blasts.

Uncontrolled cell division

The unruly cells continue to share. Healthy cells respond to signals from the environment. For example, the signal to stop sharing if there are enough cells. The immature cells no longer respond to these signals: they share unchecked. This causes a lot of abnormal blood cells.

Abnormal cells displace all other cells 

First, there is only a surplus of white blood cells in the bone marrow. The large amounts of abnormal white blood cells displace red blood cells, platelets and normal white blood cells. This can happen in a short period of time: days to weeks.
Later the abnormal white blood cells enter the bloodstream and sometimes into the organs. They can then overfill with abnormal cells. For example, this can be seen by: 
  • Swollen lymph nodes
  • An enlarged spleen
  • An enlarged liver

Primary or secondary AML

If the AML originates, it is called de novo leukaemia or primary AML. 

Have you previously been treated with chemotherapy for another type of cancer? Or have you previously had myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS)? Then there is therapy-related AML or secondary AML. 

People with primary AML have a better chance of cure than people with secondary AML.
Acute myeloid leukaemia(AML)

Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)

Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is a malignant disease that takes its origin from immature precursors of red blood cells, blood platelets, and a portion of white blood cells. AML is the most common form of acute leukemia in adults. Thanks to the intensive research carried out over the last decades, treatment options and healing options have improved significantly. The diagnosis of an AML should therefore not lead to hopelessness. An earlier incurable illness has in many cases become curable!
Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is a malignant disease of the blood-forming system (blood cancer), in which an early precursor of a myeloid cell degenerates and increases uncontrolled. Myeloid cells include the red blood cells, blood platelets, and some white blood cells. In healthy people, the proliferation and renewal of the blood cells is strictly regulated. At the AML, this process has got out of control:
Through the changes of the genetic material, the affected cell begins to divide and multiply unbraked without developing into normal, functional blood cells. The resulting cells are called myelotic blasts . They spread rapidly in the bone marrow and hinder the formation of healthy blood corpuscles there. The blasts can finally be distributed in the body via the blood and other organs can be attacked and damaged.

Causes and frequency

Acute myelogenous leukemia is not a hereditary disease and, like other cancers, is neither contagious nor can it be transmitted to other people. The cause of the AML are malignant genetic changes in the bone marrow acquired in the course of life. Ionizing radiation and certain chemical substances are considered as risk factors. Even some medicines, which are used for the treatment of cancer diseases, can occasionally trigger a so-called secondary AML in rare cases even years later. Patients with various diseases of the blood or bone marrow (eg with a myelodysplastic syndrome) or genetic diseases such as Down syndrome also have an increased risk of developing AML. In the vast majority of cases, however, it remains unclear what the cause of the disease has been.

Acute myelogenous leukemia is a rare disease with 3.5 new diagnoses per 100,000 inhabitants every year, but the most frequent form of acute leukemia in Germany. Men are slightly more affected than women. In contrast to ALL, which predominantly occurs in children, AML is a disease of the elderly - about half of the patients is over 70 years.

symptoms

The symptoms of the AML usually develop within a few weeks. They arise on the one hand due to the lack of normal blood cells and on the other hand by the attack of organs with myeloid blasts.
Very common symptoms
  • Blood loss (anemia, reduction of red blood cells ) leads to pallor, fatigue, fatigue, diminished efficiency, shortness of breath, general weakness and malaise
  • Fever and / or increased susceptibility to infections caused by white blood cells (leukopenia)
  • Abdominal pain and loss of appetite by enlargement (organ attack) of spleen and / or liver
  • Increasing leukocytes (leukocytosis) by the overproduction of lymphatic blasts
Common symptoms
  • Reduction of platelets (thrombopenia) causes bleeding (small punctiform skin bleeding (petechia), bruises, nasal bleeding, prolonged bleeding, eg after a visit to the dentist or after injuries, prolonged bleeding in women, rarely also hemorrhage)
  • Lymph node swelling on the neck, armpits or groin
  • Joint and bone pain caused by the spread of the blasts into the bone
Rare symptoms
  • Involvement of the brain, spinal cord or brain with neurological changes such as headache, visual disturbances, vomiting or nervous paralysis
  • Changes in the skin and chlorome (storage of blasts eg in the skin or in the bone marrow)
  • difficulty in breathing

Some patients have little discomfort and the leukemia is discovered by chance during a routine blood test.