Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a rare type of childhood acute leukemia, which has a worse prognosis than childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in the treatment of childhood AML and the 5-year event-free survival rate may be as high as 70% in developed countries. This survival improvement is largely attributable to risk-stratified treatments, therapies tailored to individual patients based on the biological characteristics of the disease, and continuously improving supportive care. An accurate diagnosis is the prerequisite for risk stratification, prognostic evaluation and therapeutic decision making. How to reduce early mortality and thus improve overall survival, how to implement appropriate supportive treatment to reduce treatment-associated complications, and how to reduce treatment-related mortality are the key to the improvement of therapies for childhood acute myeloid leukemia.
Child ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; diagnosis ; drug therapy ; genetics ; mortality ; Leukemia, Promyelocytic, Acute ; drug therapy ; genetics

BACKGROUND: The findings of dysplastic features in haemopoietic cells in de novo acute myeloid leukemia(AML) is defined as AML with trilineage myelodysplasia(AML/TMDS). These cases have been reported accounting for 10-5% of de novo AML. The rate of complete remission(CR) in AML/TMDS to conventional chemotherapy is poor and relapse occur much earlier than in patients without dysplastic features. TMDS features are also observed during remission and termed this de novo AML with myelodysplastic remission marrow(AML/MRM). Recent report described that TMDS during remission was more closely related to prognosis than dysplastic features at diagnosis. We investigated the incidence of AML/TMDS and AML/MRM and evaluated the impending role of dysplasia in prognosis. METHOD: Ninety-ive patients with de novo AML from March 1994 to December 1998 were enrolled according to the FAB classifiction. To determine AML/TMDS and AML/MRM, we used Brito-abapulle's criteria and Kazuhiro's criteria. Prognosis was aalysed by the means of disease free survival(DFS) and overall survival(OS). RESULTS: Nine(9.5%) patients had AML/TMDS and it was 7.7%, 17.2%, 50% of patients with M2, M4 and M6. CR rate was 44.4% for TMDS patients compared to 76.7% for patients without TMDS(p<0.05). AML/TMDS also showed significantly shorter DFS and OS. The incidence of AML/MRM was higher in the group of AML/TMDS(44.4%) compared to AML without TMDS(8.1%) but was not related to prognosis. CONCLUSION: We concluded that the presence of TMDS in de novo AML exerts a negative effect on the ability to achieve CR and in the prognosis. But the MRM has no significance to predict poor prognosis and early relapse.
Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Incidence ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute* ; Prognosis ; Recurrence

BACKGROUND: The findings of dysplastic features in haemopoietic cells in de novo acute myeloid leukemia(AML) is defined as AML with trilineage myelodysplasia(AML/TMDS). These cases have been reported accounting for 10-5% of de novo AML. The rate of complete remission(CR) in AML/TMDS to conventional chemotherapy is poor and relapse occur much earlier than in patients without dysplastic features. TMDS features are also observed during remission and termed this de novo AML with myelodysplastic remission marrow(AML/MRM). Recent report described that TMDS during remission was more closely related to prognosis than dysplastic features at diagnosis. We investigated the incidence of AML/TMDS and AML/MRM and evaluated the impending role of dysplasia in prognosis. METHOD: Ninety-ive patients with de novo AML from March 1994 to December 1998 were enrolled according to the FAB classifiction. To determine AML/TMDS and AML/MRM, we used Brito-abapulle's criteria and Kazuhiro's criteria. Prognosis was aalysed by the means of disease free survival(DFS) and overall survival(OS). RESULTS: Nine(9.5%) patients had AML/TMDS and it was 7.7%, 17.2%, 50% of patients with M2, M4 and M6. CR rate was 44.4% for TMDS patients compared to 76.7% for patients without TMDS(p<0.05). AML/TMDS also showed significantly shorter DFS and OS. The incidence of AML/MRM was higher in the group of AML/TMDS(44.4%) compared to AML without TMDS(8.1%) but was not related to prognosis. CONCLUSION: We concluded that the presence of TMDS in de novo AML exerts a negative effect on the ability to achieve CR and in the prognosis. But the MRM has no significance to predict poor prognosis and early relapse.
Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Incidence ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute* ; Prognosis ; Recurrence

A rare case of spinal epidural granulocytic sarcoma preceding acute myelogenous leukemia is described. A 21 years old female patient was presented with acute paraparesis. An emergency decompressive laminectomy with removal of mass was performed. The final pathological diagnosis was granulocytic sarcoma. Her neurological symptoms and signs were improved after operation. This rare tumor should be considered in the differential diagnosis of an epidural mass with cord compression in patients with or without acute leukemia, because early diagnosis followed by appropriate combined chemotherapy and radiation may obviate surgical intervention and eventually prevent leukemic transformation.
Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Drug Therapy ; Early Diagnosis ; Emergencies ; Female ; Humans ; Laminectomy ; Leukemia ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; Paraparesis* ; Sarcoma, Myeloid* ; Young Adult

The specific cutaneous lesions of acute myeloblastic leukemia was described, in which the skin lesions were the initial sign of the leukernia and the performance of the bone marrow aspiration led to correct diagnosis. A 55 year old man had admitted to our hospital with complaints of multiple nodules and tumors on the skin. Four month prior to admission, he had noticed small papules on his back. These lesions become nodular, increased in size and number. And then spread to anterior chest, extremities and face. Skin biopsy specimen showed diffuse dermal and subcutaneous infiltration of abnormal cells that appeared to be leukemic cell in nature. Bone marrow biopsy specimen showed changes of acute myeloblastic leukemia. Treatment was initiated with combined chemotherapy (cytosine arabinoside and adriamycin) and the eruption began to fade away.
Biopsy ; Bone Marrow ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Extremities ; Humans ; Leukemia* ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; Middle Aged ; Skin ; Thorax

Myeloid sarcoma (MS) is an extramedullary involvement of immature myeloid proliferation. An isolated MS is defined as a myeloblastic tumor when it arises without any concomitant circulating disease. A diagnosis of MS is established using pathologic features including infiltration of myeloblasts and strong myeloperoxidase expression with negative cytokeratin immunohistochemical staining. We report a rare case of colonic MS without any peripheral blood abnormality. If the affected patient were left untreated, the MS could evolve into acute myeloid leukemia (AML) within one year. Several studies recommend the same regimens of chemotherapy as used for circulating AML to treat isolated MS. We focused on the diagnosis of MS in this study. The correct diagnosis of MS is important for adequate treatment. In conclusion, MS should be considered in the differential diagnosis of intestinal tumor.
Colon ; Colonic Neoplasms ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Drug Therapy ; Granulocyte Precursor Cells ; Humans ; Intestines* ; Keratins ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; Peroxidase ; Sarcoma, Myeloid*

We report herein two cases of leukemia cutis. One case is a 54-year-old woman who came to our department with complaints of a solitary ulcerating nodule on her left leg that had been present for 2 months since prior to her visit. Through histopathological studies, the diagnosis of myelocytic leukemia cutis was made before the final diagnosis of acute myelocytic leukemia was made by hematological studies. When combined chemotherapy was finished, she was in a partial remission state and the nodule disappeared after 1 month of chemotherapy. The other case is a 77-year-old man having multiple infiltrative nodules on the right forearm and right thigh for 1 month prior his visit. He was diagnosed as having leukemia cutis for his skin lesions histopathologically. This was redefined as chronic myelomonocytic leukemia of the myelodysplastic syndrome with blastic transfor- mation by hematological examination. He developed septicemia and died 3 weeks after the dermato- logical diagnosis.
Aged ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Female ; Forearm ; Humans ; Leg ; Leukemia* ; Leukemia, Myeloid ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; Leukemia, Myelomonocytic, Chronic ; Logic ; Middle Aged ; Myelodysplastic Syndromes ; Sepsis ; Skin ; Thigh ; Ulcer

Adolescent ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; diagnosis ; drug therapy ; pathology ; Male ; Prognosis

Development of pseudomembranes in the gastrointestinal tract during acute inflammatory or vascular disease has been confined to the small and/or large bowel, with rare occurrences in the esophagus. Primary gut involvement by Aspergillus is a rare and often fatal complication of intensive antileukemic therapy. To our knowledge, there has been only two case reports of pseudomembranous gastritis. We experienced a case of isolated pseudomembranous gastritis due to Aspergillus after chemotherapy for relapsed acute myelogenous leukemia. The diagnosis was made by gastrofiberscopic findings and histologically.
Aspergillosis ; Aspergillus* ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Esophagus ; Gastritis* ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute* ; Vascular Diseases

BACKGROUND: Although acute myeloid leukemia occurring in patients with Down syndrome (AML-DS) is generally chemosensitive, these patients are more susceptible to regimen-related toxicities, and the optimal post-remission therapy for AML-DS is unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the outcome of post-remission chemotherapy using low dose cytarabine for AML-DS.METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of 142 patients who were newly diagnosed as de novo AML between 1996 and 2011. Among them, 8 patients (5.6%) had Down syndrome. Seven patients received standard induction therapy composed of cytarabine (or behenoyl cytarabine) and anthracycline. Once complete remission (CR) was achieved, repetitive courses of low dose cytarabine were given.RESULTS: Patients' median age at diagnosis was 1.3 years (range, 0.4-1.9). All but one showed French-American-British (FAB) M7 morphology. Six patients achieved CR (75%) after induction therapy and then received 9 to 20 courses (median, 14) of low dose cytarabine. One patient had 2 episodes of neutropenic fever, whereas the other 5 patients did not suffer from any complication. All six patients are alive event-free with a median follow-up of 118 months (range, 33-208). The estimated 5-year overall survival of all 8 AML-DS patients was 87.5%, while that of non-DS de novo AML patients was 58.6% (P=0.18).CONCLUSION: Low dose cytarabine was safe and effective as a post-remission therapy for AML-DS. Due to the rarity of AML-DS, a multicenter cooperative study is essential to identify the optimal duration of treatment and to further determine the feasibility of low dose cytarabine for these patients.
Cytarabine ; Diagnosis ; Down Syndrome ; Drug Therapy ; Fever ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; Medical Records