Acute Myeloid Leukemia - Symptoms
- The symptoms of AML can be very subtle and non-specific
- Many people experience flu-like symptoms such as fatigue, fever and loss of appetite
- A low platelet count may lead to things like regular nose bleeds, bruising and gums that bleed easily during teeth brushing
AML is essentially a cancer of the white blood cells, Dr. Sekeres says, so it can lead to a handful of non-specific symptoms that are similar to those of the flu.
Read More “Something like acute myeloid leukemia causes very high white blood cell count … a person has symptoms of the flu because he or she has a high white blood cell count reacting to a virus,” Dr. Sekeres says. “The high white blood cell count occurs because there’s a cancer in the bone marrow that causes the white blood cells to grow and grow and grow, and not know how to stop growing.” Dr. Sekeres notes that some of the symptoms that go along with that are fatigue, fever and a loss of appetite. If a person is experiencing these symptoms in the long-term, that would prompt a doctor to do some blood work, Dr. Sekeres says. A person who has AML’s blood work can return with a white blood cell count that’s 20X the normal number, and a red blood cell (or hemoglobin) count that is much lower than normal. This low hemoglobin can lead to fatigue. A low platelet count may also lead to symptoms such as irregular bleeding — leading people to experience subtle side effects like nose bleeds, bruising or bleeding in the gums when brushing their teeth.
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