THURSDAY, June 10, 2021 (HealthDay News) — From 1980 to 2017, there was improvement in survival for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in all age groups, except for those aged ≥70 years, according to a study published in the June 15 issue of Cancer.

Koji Sasaki, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and colleagues identified 29,107 patients diagnosed with de novo AML between 1980 and 2017 from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Patients were classified according to age and calendar period, and outcomes were examined within these categories.

The researchers found that for patients with AML, the overall five-year survival rates were 9, 15, 22, and 28 percent in the decades 1980 to 1989, 1990 to 1999, 2000 to 2009, and 2010 to 2017, respectively. The corresponding five-year survival rates were 24, 41, 52, and 63 percent among patients aged 15 to 39 years and 1, 2, 3, and 5 percent for those aged ≥70 years. Among adults and older patients, four-week mortality was surprisingly high (range, 20 to 45 percent), even in modern times. Over the calendar periods, survival continued to improve and was best in 2010 to 2017. The improvement in survival was noticeable across all age groups, except for patients aged ≥70 years.

“We believe we now have many of the therapeutic tools that could improve the cure rates across all AML categories in the next decade,” the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.

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