Acute leukemia is defined as a neoplastic proliferation of hematopoietic (blood-forming) myeloid or lymphoid cells, which is mostly due to genetic anomalies in a single cell that cause clonal expansion, meaning that all the abnormal cells descend from that one cell.
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the myeloid form: a neoplasm characterised by the infiltration of clonal, poorly differentiated hematopoietic cells called blasts into the blood, bone marrow and other tissues. The genetic abnormalities of the leukemic clone are the idea that organises the topic: they explain how the disease arises, how it is classified, and how patients are grouped by prognosis.
Choose a route through the topic
- Epidemiology of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: how common AML is, who develops it, and how often it is cured.
- Pathophysiology of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: how the leukemic clone arises and expands, and how it causes bone marrow failure.
- Etiology of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: what is known about the causes, including chemical and occupational exposure, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and the germline mutations and inherited syndromes that predispose to AML.
- Classification of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: how the WHO classifies AML, the blast count needed for the diagnosis, and the genetic, morphological and immunophenotypic findings that define the subtypes.
- Clinical Presentation of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: the non-specific symptoms of anemia, leukocytosis, leukopenia and thrombocytopenia, the bleeding and infection that follow, the infiltration seen in monocytic AML, and the main complications.
- Diagnosis of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: when AML should be suspected, the diagnostic criteria and their exceptions, the laboratory work-up, and the differential diagnosis.
- Prognosis and Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: how chromosomal and molecular findings place patients into favourable, intermediate or adverse prognostic groups, the mutations that matter for prognosis, and remission induction.
To start, read the pathophysiology and classification notes, on how the clone arises and how it is classified, because the diagnosis and prognosis notes both build on them.