Initial Treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia
- The initial treatment for people with AML, for those who can tolerate it, is a combination of two chemotherapy drugs in a process called “induction chemotherapy”
- The chemo combination is given over a course of one week, but patients may have to stay in the hospital for a total of four-six weeks due to compromised immune systems
- During the hospital stay, doctors will re-test the patient to make sure chemotherapy is working
RELATED: What Are the Phases of AML Treatment?
Read More The goal is to induce remission by drastically reducing the number of leukemia cells in the body. Two chemotherapy drugs — Daunorubicin or Idarubicin and Ara-C — are given during this phase of treatment. Ara-C is given for seven days straight in the first week of treatment, while the Daunorubicin or Idarubicin is given for three days as a 10-minute IV push. “It’s a grand total of seven, plus three days that are overlapping,” Dr. Sekeres says. “Seven days total that a person receives chemotherapy. Now, this chemotherapy is not very elegant. The goal is to kill the leukemia cells, but it’s not that accurate, so it also kills the other bone marrow cells.” Because the chemotherapy kills other healthy cells as well, people getting this induction chemotherapy will become extremely immuno-compromised — which leads to longer hospital stays.
“Because that person’s immune system is so compromised, and their requirement for [blood] transfusions is so huge, they remain in the hospital for four to six weeks total,” Dr. Sekeres says.
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.