AML and ALL patients are susceptible to the development of localized areas of leukemia involvement.
These may show up as skin rashes or lumps in the breasts, testicles or ovaries. The prognosis is worse when
these localized areas of leukemia appear.
Treatment Overview The goal of treatment is to obtain a complete and long-term remission . Anything short of that offers no substantial survival benefit. Treatment is divided into two phases:
• Induction . This is the attempt to attain a remission, meaning that the bone marrow appears normal.
• Consolidation . This involves giving the same or different treatment, even when someone appears to be in
remission, because of the suspected or assumed presence of residual disease that cannot be detected but that
may cause a later relapse.
Some patients may receive a third phase called maintenance treatment to prolong the remission. Maintenance treatment is more commonly associated with the treatment of ALL than AML.
Survival Remission rates are inversely related to age. The response rate decreases as the patient's age increases, and age is directly related to increased risk for complications and death during the induction phase of treatment.
