Sanjivan - The Organ Donation Blog

AML is a fast-growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow. In AML, the bone marrow makes many unformed cells called blasts. Blasts normally develop into white blood cells that fight infection. However, the blasts are abnormal in AML. They do not develop and cannot fight infections. The number of abnormal cells (or leukemia cells) grows quickly. They crowd out the normal red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets the body needs.

Symptoms and Diagnosis
AML is the most common type of leukemia. More than 11,900 new cases occur in the United States each year, mostly in older adults. The average age of a person with AML is 65 years. Fewer than 10% of people with AML are children. The symptoms of AML are caused by low numbers of healthy blood cells and high numbers of leukemia cells. A person with AML may feel generally unwell and run-down. He or she may also have other, less common symptoms. AML is diagnosed when blood and bone marrow samples show a large number of leukemia cells. AML has eight subtypes, labeled M0 through M7. The subtypes are based on the type of blood cells affected.

Treatment Options
AML can get worse quickly, so doctors usually begin treatment right away. To plan treatment, doctors look at a patient’s risk factors (also called prognostic factors). Risk factors are patient and disease traits that clinical studies have linked to better or worse outcomes from treatment. For a patient with AML, the treatment plan may include:

• Chemotherapy - drugs that destroy cancer cells or stop them from growing.
• A bone marrow or cord blood transplant.
• All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) if he or she has the subtype of AML known as promyelocytic leukemia.
• Gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg) - a type of monoclonal antibody. Monoclonal antibodies are proteins designed to attach to leukemia cells and help the immune system destroy them.

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a slowgrowing cancer of the white blood cells. It is also sometimes called chronic myeloid, chronic granulocytic or chronic myelocytic leukemia. CML is a common leukemia. In the United States, more than 20,000 people have CML and about 4,600 new cases are diagnosed each year. Most cases of CML appear in adults, but about 2 to 4% of CML patients are children.

CML patients have bone marrow that makes too many white blood cells. CML is caused by a change in the genetic code of some of the cells in the bone marrow. In these cells, part of chromosome 9 moves to chromosome 22. This creates an abnormal chromosome called the Philadelphia chromosome.
The Philadelphia chromosome makes an enzyme (called tyrosine kinase) that signals the body to make too many white blood cells. Doctors do not know what causes the Philadelphia chromosome to appear.

Phases and Symptoms
CML has three phases. Most patients are diagnosed in the first phase, called the chronic phase. It can develop over time into the second (accelerated) and third (blast) phase.

Chronic Phase
In the chronic phase, there are more white blood cells in the blood and bone marrow than usual. Most are mature cells that can work normally. Depending on treatment, the chronic phase may last two to five years or more before turning into the accelerated phase. The symptoms of chronic phase CML depend on how high the person’s white blood cell count is. Often, people do not notice any symptoms at all. Their CML is found during a routine doctor’s visit.

Accelerated Phase
In the accelerated phase, there are more blasts (immature white blood cells) in the marrow, blood, liver and spleen. The blasts cannot fight infections the way normal white blood cells do. This phase may last one to three months before reaching the blast phase. Symptoms are more noticeable than in chronic phase.

Blast Phase
In the blast phase, the number of blasts in the bloodstream grow rapidly. As a result, there are fewer normal blood cells (white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets), and the symptoms listed above become severe. Patients often have problems with bruises, bleeding and infection.

Thanks: AADP.org

Patients waiting list at AADP

Found another website A3M (thanks to HelpVinay.org). They help connect Asian Bone Marrow donors to patients. Check out A3M’s website. .

I was checking HelpVinay.org and happy to know that Vinay is back to home. I found about SAMAR, south Asian Marrow Association of Recruiters and their awesome job. Congrats and heartfelt appreciation from my heart to SAMAR and their volunteers. Check out their website.