‘Emily In Paris’ Star Ashley Park, 34, Is Reclaiming the ‘Positive Moments’ On Surviving Acute Myeloid Leukemia As a Teen

In the months before her diagnosis, she often felt sick and began noticing mysterious bruises across her body. Things took a serious turn when she fainted during dance class and found it increasingly difficult to move quickly between classes, which led her to see a doctor—ultimately resulting in her life-changing diagnosis.

Looking back on when she first saw her doctor about her symptoms, Park tells USA TODAY at 2026 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival, “They’re like, ‘you have to go to the emergency room right away.’

“And I was like, ‘I need to go to rehearsal first,'” Park said, referring to her high school’s “American Idol”-inspired show.

Park was in attendance at the festival to discuss the Time Back campaign, which recognizes oncologists for their impact on the lives of anyone battling cancer.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) Overview

“We need a lot of positive things right now in the world, and I think that I haven’t gotten to speak about regaining the moments that are positive and good when it has to do with my cancer experience,” Park told USA TODAY.

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Park, still deeply thankful for the doctors who supported her, remembered that during her eight-month battle, visits with her oncologist were “some of the only human interactions” she had.

Now, as Park is in remission, she looks back on how her treatment regime was worth missing a full semester of school because she’s been declared in remission since.

Park makes sure to focus on her overall wellbeing and utilize the emotions of her past health experience to help her find the “genuine truth” in her, rather than feeling as if she’s putting a “mask” on, she told USA TODAY.

RELATED: A New All Oral Treatment For AML On The Horizon For Patients Struggling To Withstand Chemo

As for her joining Bristol Myers Squibb in their Time Back campaign, Park took to Instagram to describe it as “an important movement honoring the work of our incredible oncologists.”

She explained, “Every day, they help shift the balance for people to reclaim more time… more vacations, more graduations, more laughter, more moments that matter.

“Here’s to the oncologists giving us time back.”

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In an earlier in interview with Cosmopolitan, Park admitted she initially feared the illness would define her future career and identity as a performer.

She told Cosmopolitan, “I never wanted to be just the Asian girl, just the ‘whatever’ girl, and then I got to 16 and was the bald girl and the sick girl.”

Park ultimately underwent chemotherapy, and tried to ignore the possibility of long-term side-effects as a result of treatment. For instance, she had to start thinking about her fertility and heart health before she could even think about studying for her SATs.

“I didn’t want to know that I might be infertile or that my heart might stop working or any of that stuff because once you say it, you’re thinking about it,” Park said.

“Even though my body beat the disease, if I let it change anything, it’s won.”

Speaking with Playbill in 2016, Park said, “I’ve been reflecting more about it [her battle with AML] recently, and I realize the whole putting on a wig and putting on shoes and costume and being a different person was the best escape from being just the girl who had cancer.

“Three months after I left the hospital room in a wheelchair, I was Millie in some high school production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, [and] that was the best therapy I could ask for.”

Understanding Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia, also known as AML, is a cancer that affects bone marrow the spongy tissue inside of your bones. It is a rare cancer overall, but it is the most common type of leukemia in adults. Children rarely get AML.

“To understand acute myeloid leukemia, you have to understand how the bone marrow works,” Dr. Mikkael Sekeres, former director of the Leukemia Program at Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center and current chief of the Division of Hematology at University of Miami Health System, previously told SurvivorNet.

“The bone marrow is the factory that makes all of the cells that wind up in our blood stream.”

What is Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)?

This so-called factory makes red blood cells that bring oxygen to our tissues, white blood cells that make up the immune system, as well as platelets, which help stop bleeding, Dr. Sekeres explained.

All of these cells perform essential functions in the body, and a spike or decline in any of them can lead to some serious health issues.

“When a person has cancer of the bone marrow, such as acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndromes, that factory gets broken. These are cancers,” he said. “Cancers grow, and they grow in an uncontrollable way.”

Dr. Sekeres pointed out that the way blood cancer grows is different from the way other, solid-tumor cancers grow. With breast cancer, for example, someone may develop a lump or a tumor that grows overtime. With AML, as cancer grows in a confined space (the bone marrow), the normal cells in this space that would be making the red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, begin dying off. This leads to the bone marrow being filled with cancer cells.

How to Recognize Symptoms of Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Treating Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

Acute myeloid leukemia is a fast-growing blood cancer that begins in the bone marrow, the factory that makes white and red blood cells and platelets. Within the bone marrow are stem cells that eventually develop into white blood cells (WBCs), red blood cells (RBCs), and platelets, which help blood clot.

Stem cells can copy themselves to make progenitor cells or precursor cells.  Myeloid progenitor cells turn into red blood cells, granulocytes (a type of white blood cell), and platelets. AML affects the myeloid progenitor cells during a stage of development when they are called myeloblasts.

With AML, myeloblasts fail to turn into fully developed blood cells, leaving them to build up in the bone marrow and blood.

AML is diagnosed by extracting samples of liquid bone marrow and a chip of bone from the back of the hip. The samples are then tested to determine if blood cells in the bone marrow are abnormal.

WATCH: An AML Diagnosis What are the Next Steps?

Dr. Gail Roboz, an AML expert and medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, explained to SurvivorNet in an earlier interview, “The majority of patients have this sporadically out of the clear blue sky.”

Symptoms for acute myeloid leukemia can include:

• Flu-like symptoms
• Fatigue
• Fever
• Loss of appetite

AML causes certain symptoms, but having these symptoms doesn’t necessarily mean you have AML. Your doctor will do diagnostic tests to confirm whether or not you have AML before recommending a treatment.

Your doctor will then perform tests to diagnose you, and those tests include:

• Blood tests. In people with AML, white blood cell counts may be high, and red blood cell and platelet counts may be low. These tests can also show immature cells in the blood that should only be found in the bone marrow.
• Bone marrow biopsy. Removing and testing a bone marrow sample helps confirm AML after an abnormal blood test result.
• Lumbar puncture. This test uses a sample of spinal fluid to diagnose AML.
• Molecular and genetic testing. Your doctor can do tests to determine whether you have certain genes related to AML and if your cancer might respond to specialized treatments.

WATCH: Treatment decisions for AML

For people deemed healthy enough, induction therapy is the standard treatment for AML. The process involves a seven-day chemotherapy regimen, followed by several weeks of recovery. The goal of this high dose of chemo is to induce remission.

A stem cell transplant is another option for treating AML. After a high dose of chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant gives the patient healthy cells to replace the ones that chemotherapy may have killed.

After chemo and a transplant, the recovery process can be difficult because the immune system will be compromised. Finding a genetic match in a donor may also be difficult.

Why a Stem-Cell Transplant?

A stem-cell transplant doesn’t directly fight cancer cells, rather it helps your body create healthy cells after chemotherapy and other treatments have destroyed them.

The first course of treatment for AML patients is generally a combination of two chemotherapy drugs, known as “induction chemotherapy.” Its goal is to kill cancer cells, but along with killing cancer cells, chemotherapy also kills the body’s healthy cells and platelets. A stem-cell transplant is designed to help rebuild those blood cells and platelets and restore the immune system. The healthy new cells may also help prohibit recurrence of the disease.

“We don’t believe that chemotherapy, for the majority of leukemias, is sufficient in order to cure patients of their disease, forever,” Dr. Caitlin Costello, hematologist-oncologist at UC San Diego Health, told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview.

“And so a transplant is an opportunity to do that cure patients with leukemia.”

Dr. Caitlin Costello breaks down the basics about stem-cell transplants for SurvivorNet

Which AML Patients are Candidates for Stem-Cell Transplants?

Not all AML patients are candidates for a stem-cell transplant. Some need only chemotherapy, and some high-risk patients may not be able to tolerate a transplant. It all comes down to your medical team determining your risk group.

Dr. Raoul Tibes, director of the Clinical Leukemia Program at NYU Langone Health,  told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview that AMLs are grouped according to what are called cytogenetics (loss or changes to the structure of chromosomes) and other molecular markers. Doctors also look for genetic mutations on top of chromosomes, which could be indicators of risk.

Dr. Raoul Tibes discusses how an individual’s AML risk group is determined with SurvivorNet

“Based on all that information, we can group leukemias into the chromosome status, as well as mutations and genes. We take them together and then we have three or four different risk stratification groups,” he says. “That helps us decide which therapy we use.”

Turning to Artistic Expression Amid Cancer

Many cancer patients wrestling with their emotions or adjusting to cancer treatment undergo immense stress. During times like these, resorting to therapy such as music, dancing, painting, and other forms of art can be extremely helpful.

In 2020, researchers studied the outcomes of therapeutic art making in patients undergoing radiation oncology treatment. Although the research was limited in scope, it found patients reported “decreased depression, anxiety, drowsiness, and tiredness” after mindfulness-based art therapy intervention.

Dr. Dana Chase, a gynecologic oncologist at UCLA Health, told SurvivorNet that emotional health and good quality of life are associated with better survival and better outcomes. Art therapy can influence a cancer patient’s overall emotional health.

We previously sat down to chat with two-time cancer survivor Bianca Muniz, who found solace in creating music while she was undergoing cancer treatment.

Her cancer journey began at just 11 years old when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Then, at 22 years old, she was diagnosed again this time with breast cancer.

Muniz says that undergoing numerous different treatments did have an impact on her voice, but she never let that get in the way of her love of performing, and cancer actually served as a muse for creating new music.

WATCH: Two-time cancer survivor used music therapy to help her along her journey.  

“This experience has had two different effects on my creativity and my music, so I’ve gotten a lot of inspiration from it,” Muniz said.

“But also the side effects of treatment, of chemo –and surgery — have definitely had a little bit of a negative effect on my voice, but then again, I love performing. I always feel happy after I’ve performed.”

Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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