Statistics and outlook for acute myeloid leukaemia

This page contains quite detailed information about the survival rates for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). We have included it because many people have asked us for this. But not everyone who is diagnosed with a cancer wants to read this type of information. If you are not sure whether you want to know at the moment or not, then perhaps you might like to skip this page for now. You can always come back to it.

Please note: There are no national statistics available for different stages of cancer or treatments that people have had. The statistics we present here are pulled together from a variety of different sources, including the opinions and experience of the experts who check each section of CancerHelp UK. We give statistics because people ask us for them. But they are only intended as a general guide and can’t tell you what will happen in your case.

The CancerHelp UK cancer statistics section has information about the different types of cancer statistics. You may find it helpful to read this before you read the information below, unless you are very familiar with medical statistics,

Remember - statistics are averages based on large numbers of people. They cannot predict exactly what will happen to you. No two people are exactly alike. How well treatment works will vary from one person to another.

You should feel free to ask about your outlook, but even your doctor cannot tell you exactly what will happen. You may hear your doctor use the terms '5 year survival' or ’10 year survival. This doesn't mean you will only live 5 or 10 years. It relates to the number of people in research who are still alive 5 or 10 years after diagnosis. Doctors follow what happens to people for this long in leukaemia research studies. This is so that they can compare the results of different kinds of treatment.

The outcome of treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia depends on several different factors. You will need to talk this through with your own specialist.

The factors include

• Your type of leukaemia
• How advanced it is when you are diagnosed
• How well it responds to chemotherapy treatment

The outcome also depends on whether you had leukaemia that changed (transformed) from a chronic form into an acute form. It can be more difficult to treat leukaemia that has transformed.

It may also be harder to treat a leukaemia that has developed after treatment for another cancer. This is called a secondary leukaemia. It means that you developed leukaemia after earlier chemotherapy damaged your bone marrow cells. This is rare, but it can happen. Secondary leukaemia usually develops within 10 years of treatment for the first cancer.

Your doctors may be able to get your leukaemia into remission for a few years, even if they can’t cure it completely. Remission is when the leukaemia is not active and the doctors cannot detect it. For example, there are no leukaemia cells in your blood samples. With relapsed acute leukaemia, it is sometimes possible to achieve a second remission with more chemotherapy.

This section deals with adult acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). There is a separate section for statistics about acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Your age when you were diagnosed plays a big part in your likely outcome. Generally, the younger you are, the more likely your treatment is to work well. This is partly because leukaemia behaves in different ways in different people. And partly because younger people are better able to cope physically with the very intensive treatments that are more likely to cure leukaemia. But specialists and researchers are working on ways of adapting the very intensive treatments so they are also suitable for older people.

Of all adults diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, on average about 8 to 9 out of 100 (8-9%) will live for at least 5 years. But younger adults tend to do much better than older people. For example, just under 40 out of 100 (40%) women under 40 diagnosed with AML will live for at least 5 years.

Treatments for AML have improved a lot over the last 30 years. And it is usually diagnosed earlier. For people diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 60, nearly half will be alive 5 years later. Some of these people will be cured. But in others the AML will come back. Unfortunately, we can’t tell in advance who has been cured and who will relapse.

The younger you are when diagnosed with leukaemia, the better you are likely to do. Children with leukaemia tend to do much better than adults. The cure rate for children has improved dramatically over the past few decades. In the 1960s very few children with AML lived for more than 5 years. For children on a recent trial, around 66 out of 100 (66%) are living for at least 5 years.

These figures may have improved again for people diagnosed since 1999. The progress of people diagnosed with cancer is followed for at least 5 to 10 years to produce these statistics, so they always seem a little out of date.

We know that some things affect the outcome of disease. We call these 'prognostic factors'. AML is harder to treat if

• You are older
• Your white blood cell count is very high when you are diagnosed
• Your AML developed from a condition called myelodysplasia or because you had treatment for another cancer
• You have particular genetic abnormalities in the leukaemia cells
• It takes more than one or two cycles of chemotherapy to get your leukaemia under control

No statistics can tell you what will happen to you. Your cancer is unique. For example, the same type of leukaemia can grow at different rates in different people.

Statistics are not detailed enough to tell you about the different treatments people may have had. Or how that treatment may have affected their outlook. Many individual factors determine your treatment and prognosis.

Research evidence shows that taking part in clinical trials can improve outlook. No one is completely sure why this is. It is probably partly to do with your doctors monitoring you more closely if you are in a trial. For example, you may have more scans and blood tests. There is more information about research in the trials and research section in CancerHelp UK.