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Acute leukaemia (AML & ALL)

Leukaemia acuta (myeloides et lymphoblastica) · Akutní leukémie (AML a ALL)

What it is

Immature blasts crowd out the marrow within weeks. Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is the commonest childhood cancer and about 90% of children are now cured; acute myeloid leukaemia strikes mostly older adults, and under a third of adults survive five years.

Symptoms & signs

  • Fatigue and pallor
  • fever and repeated infections
  • easy bruising, pinpoint bleeds, bleeding gums
  • bone pain, limping in children
  • swollen gums (some AML)
  • swollen nodes, liver or spleen (ALL)

🚩 Get help if…

  • call 112 / 911 now Fever over 38 °C during treatment
  • call 112 / 911 now Bleeding that will not stop, or a severe headache
  • see a doctor soon Bruises or tiny red spots appearing without reason
  • see a doctor soon Pale, tired and short of breath with bone pain

Where it strikes

Medical treatment

  • Urgent blood count, marrow, flow cytometry and genetic tests
  • Induction and consolidation chemotherapy trials support
  • stem-cell transplant for high-risk or relapsed disease
  • All-trans retinoic acid with arsenic trioxide for acute promyelocytic leukaemia — cures most without chemotherapy trials support
  • tyrosine kinase inhibitors with chemotherapy for Philadelphia-positive ALL
  • blinatumomab (bispecific antibody) for B-cell ALL — approved (FDA 2014, EMA 2015)
  • CAR-T (tisagenlecleucel) for relapsed B-cell ALL up to age 25 — FDA-approved 2017; cytokine release and neurotoxicity
  • Venetoclax + azacitidine for older AML patients unfit for intensive chemotherapy — median survival 14.7 vs 9.6 months (VIALE-A) trials support
  • menin inhibitor revumenib for KMT2A-rearranged acute leukaemia — FDA-approved 2024

Natural & lifestyle

  • Infection precautions during treatment
  • nutrition
  • exercise as tolerated
  • dental clearance before therapy
  • psychological support

Emerging & experimental

  • MRD-guided therapy
  • off-the-shelf allogeneic CAR-T
  • menin inhibitors combined with chemotherapy

Alternative, off-label & anecdotal

Approaches used outside the guidelines, with what their supporters report and what testing has found so far.

  • Arsenic trioxide — a traditional Chinese poison, now the standard curative drug for acute promyelocytic leukaemia trials support
  • High-dose intravenous vitamin C — laboratory activity; small trials early / small studies
  • Fenbendazole — anecdotal; no human trials anecdotal / traditional

ICD codes