Last Modified: November 5, 2006 Dear OncoLink "Ask The Experts,"
My son was diagnosed with acute undifferentiated leukemia. We
cannot find any information on this [disease] or on treatment
options. Can you help shed some light on this, and why this type
of leukemia is treated as AML (acute myelogenous leukemia)?
Selina M. Luger, MD, Director of the Leukemia Program and
Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of
Pennsylvania, responds: It seems that they are calling this an
acute leukemia that is not clearly lymphoid or myeloid, which
are the two main types of acute leukemias. Generally, if a
leukemia is definitely not lymphoid, it is thought that the best
treatment is to manage it as an acute myeloid leukemia ( AML),
at least initially. This is because this treatment has been
found to be effective in all types of acute leukemia (even some
acute lymphoid leukemia, or ALL, patients have been treated with
AML therapy with an excellent response). However, the fact that
it is an undifferentiated leukemia