Morphological classification and treatment outcomes of children with AML during four years

Acute myeloid leukemia comprises only 15% to 20% of acute leukemia in children. It remains a challenging disease with an inferior treatment outcome in comparison with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). This study aimed to document the morphological classification and treatment outcomes of children with Acute Myeloid Leukemia treated in the Child’s Central Teaching Hospital (CCTH) in Baghdad / Iraq. This retrospective study was conducted at CCTH in Baghdad, during the period from 1st January 2009 to 31st December 2012 on 49 cases who were diagnosed as AML. Down syndrome (DS) and acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), with undifferentiated leukemia were excluded from this study. The average age of presentation was 5 years, and the median duration of symptoms was 4 weeks, with male (M): female (F) ratio = 1.13:1. It can be concluded that there was slight male predominance. The most common French-American-British (FAB) subtype was M2 38.8%. From the total number of patients who received treatment n= 38/49 (77.5%), death rate was n= 27/38 (71%), the main cause of death was infection followed by bleeding, while lost to follow-up (during any period after started treatment) was n= 6/38 (16%). Only five {n= 5/38(13%)} patients were still alive to the end of the study and those are in continuous complete remission one (CCR1). It can be concluded that AML-M2 was the most common subtype, and the overall survival was much low and seems to be unlikely to increase without good supportive care and using of more intensification therapy.