Making a Treatment Plan
- Making treatment treatment decisions about AML should revolve around your goals
- For a healthy adult, the odds of going into a first remission after AML treatment are around 70 to 80%
- The odds of another remission are cut in half every time a relapse of the disease occurs
“I have conversations all the time with my patients about their goals,” says Dr. Mikkael Sekeres, Director of the Leukemia Program at Cleveland Clinic. “I’m not the one who’s wearing their shoes. I’m not the one who’s been through all the chemotherapy and all the side effects of chemotherapy and all the time away from family.”
When treating acute myeloid leukemia (AML), as with most cancers, the goal is a cure. However, most patients do not see a cure — either because the disease does not respond or because it recurs, according to Dr. Sekeres. For this reason, taking a patient’s goals into account is an important part of the treatment process.
When a person who is in good health is diagnosed with the disease, Dr. Sekeres says, there is about a 70 to 80% chance that this person will go into remission after treatment. However, when AML recurs, that number is halved to about 30 to 40% — and it’s halved again if an additional relapse occurs.
“Some people see those numbers and say, ‘If there’s any chance, I’m gonna go for it.’ And we will support them through that … other people hear those numbers and say, ‘Not good enough for me.’ And those are folks we will start to have a discussion about palliative care and hospice — and whether that person wants to continue to be support with blood and platelet transfusions, or not even that,” Dr. Sekeres says.
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
Making a Treatment Plan
- Making treatment treatment decisions about AML should revolve around your goals
- For a healthy adult, the odds of going into a first remission after AML treatment are around 70 to 80%
- The odds of another remission are cut in half every time a relapse of the disease occurs
“I have conversations all the time with my patients about their goals,” says
Dr. Mikkael Sekeres, Director of the Leukemia Program at Cleveland Clinic. “I’m not the one who’s wearing their shoes. I’m not the one who’s been through all the chemotherapy and all the side effects of chemotherapy and all the time away from family.”
When treating acute myeloid leukemia (AML), as with most cancers, the goal is a cure. However, most patients do not see a cure — either because the disease does not respond or because it recurs, according to Dr. Sekeres. For this reason, taking a patient’s goals into account is an important part of the treatment process.
Read More When a person who is in good health is diagnosed with the disease, Dr. Sekeres says, there is about a 70 to 80% chance that this person will go into remission after treatment. However, when AML recurs, that number is halved to about 30 to 40% — and it’s halved again if an additional relapse occurs.
“Some people see those numbers and say, ‘If there’s any chance, I’m gonna go for it.’ And we will support them through that … other people hear those numbers and say, ‘Not good enough for me.’ And those are folks we will start to have a discussion about palliative care and hospice — and whether that person wants to continue to be support with blood and platelet transfusions, or not even that,” Dr. Sekeres says.
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
