Is Acute myloid leukamia is 100% curable?

Question

My father is suffering from above and having heart problem also.
he is 70 yrs old.

Answer 1

It is not 100% curable. The prognosis depends on the subtype of AML and the person's age and general health.

Answer 2

I'm sorry to hear your father is suffering from heart problems as well as myeloid leukamia. Theres no cure for aml. Its treatable and the rates are good around 60-70% dependant on patient.

Answer 3

Chemotherapeutic treatment is divided into two phases: induction and postremission therapy. In all FAB subtypes except M3, the usual initial treatment includes cytarabine (ara-C) and an anthracycline (such as daunorubicin or idarubicin). Because of the toxic effects of therapy (from myelosuppression and increased risk of infection), induction chemotherapy is generally not offered to the very elderly.

Complete remission is obtained in about 50%-75% of newly diagnosed adults. The bone marrow is examined for malignant cells following induction chemotherapy. Complete remission does not mean that the disease has been cured; rather, it signifies that no disease can be detected (i.e., <5% leukemic blasts in the bone marrow).

Once complete remission is achieved, more therapy is necessary to eliminate nondetectable disease to prevent relapse of disease and achieve a cure. Postremission therapy can include more intensive chemotherapy, known as consolidation chemotherapy, or bone marrow transplant. However, despite aggressive therapy, only 20%-30% of patients enjoy long-term disease-free survival. For patients with relapsed AML, the only proven potentially curative therapy is a stem cell transplant. In 2000, Mylotarg (gemtuzumab zogamicin) was approved in the United States for patients aged more than 60 years with relapsed AML who are not good candidates for high-dose chemotherapy.

The M3 subtype, also known as acute promyelocytic leukemia, is almost universally treated by the drug ATRA (all-trans-retinoic acid). For relapsed APL, arsenic trioxide has been tested in trials and approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Like ATRA, arsenic trioxide does not work with other subtypes of AML.

For many AML cases with so-called balanced translocations, doctors can now accurately monitor the effect of chemotherapy with molecular assays (PCR [polymerase chain reaction] tests). Often, these quantitative PCR assays have the sensitivity to detect one leukemic cell in 100,000 normal ones. Such data allow the doctors to better evaluate the effect of therapy and to foresee relapses of the disease long before they can be diagnosed by other methods or even felt by the patients.

Answer 4

This days medicine has gone a long way.I think most of the diseases are cureable nowadays.

Answer 5

Sorry to hear about your father. Hope all turns out well. My thoughts are with you. I have pasted some information below aboy Acute Myeloid Leukamia. Good luck to you and your family. :)

This information is produced and provided by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The information in this topic may have changed since it was written. For the most current information, contact the National Cancer Institute via the Internet web site at http://cancer.gov or call 1-800-4-CANCER


Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia
General Information
Note: Estimated new cases and deaths from acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in the United States in 2005:[1]

New cases: 11,960.
Deaths: 9,000.
Advances in the treatment of AML (also called acute nonlymphocytic leukemia or ANLL) have resulted in substantially improved complete remission rates.[2] Treatment should be sufficiently aggressive to achieve complete remission because partial remission offers no substantial survival benefit. Approximately 60% to 70% of adults with AML can be expected to attain complete remission status following appropriate induction therapy. More than 15% of adults with AML (about 25% of those who attain complete remission) can be expected to survive 3 or more years and may be cured. Remission rates in adult AML are inversely related to age, with an expected remission rate of >65% for those younger than 60 years. Data suggest that once attained, duration of remission may be shorter in older patients. Increased morbidity and mortality during induction appear to be directly related to age. Other adverse prognostic factors include central nervous system involvement with leukemia, systemic infection at diagnosis, elevated white blood cell count (>100,000/mm3), treatment-induced AML, and history of myelodysplastic syndrome. Leukemias that express the progenitor cell antigen CD34 and/or the P-glycoprotein (MDR1 gene product) have an inferior outcome.[3,4,5]

Cytogenetic analysis provides some of the strongest prognostic information available, predicting outcome of both remission induction and postremission therapy.[6] Cytogenetic abnormalities that indicate a good prognosis include t(8;21), inv(16), and t(15;17). Normal cytogenetics portend average-risk AML. Patients with AML that is characterized by deletions of the long arms or monosomies of chromosomes 5 or 7; by translocations or inversions of chromosome 3, t(6;9), t(9;22); or by abnormalities of chromosome 11q23 have particularly poor prognoses with chemotherapy. These cytogenetic subgroups predict clinical outcome in elderly patients with AML as well as in younger patients.[7] The fusion genes formed in t(8;21) and inv(16) can be detected by reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (RT–PCR), which will indicate the presence of these genetic alterations in some patients in whom standard cytogenetics was technically inadequate. RT–PCR does not appear to identify significant numbers of patients with good risk fusion genes who have normal cytogenetics.[8]

The classification of AML has been revised by a group of pathologists and clinicians under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO).[9] While elements of the French-American-British classification have been retained (i.e., morphology, immunophenotype, cytogenetics and clinical features), the WHO classification incorporates more recent discoveries regarding the genetics and clinical features of AML in an attempt to define entities that are biologically homogeneous and that have prognostic and therapeutic relevance.[9,10,11] Each criterion has prognostic and treatment implications but, for practical purposes, antileukemic therapy is similar for all subtypes.

Long-term follow-up of 30 patients with AML in remission for at least 10 years has demonstrated a 13% incidence of secondary malignancies. Of 31 long-term female survivors of AML or acute lymphoblastic leukemia younger than 40 years, 26 resumed normal menstruation following completion of therapy. Among 36 live offspring of survivors, 2 congenital problems occurred.[12]

The differentiation of AML from acute lymphocytic leukemia has important therapeutic implications. Histochemical stains and cell surface antigen determinations aid in discrimination.