Myeloid Leukemia Treatment

Myeloid leukemia or cancer of the myeloid lining of blood cells, which results in interference in normal blood cell production, is best treated with the process of chemotherapy. This procedure consists mainly of two stages---induction or remission induction, which attempts a total cutback on the cancer by bringing down the number of leukemic cells to an inconspicuous level, and consolidation therapy, which attempts to get rid of any remnant undetected ailment and move toward healing.

Remission Induction

• The initial treatment for myeloid leukemia with chemotherapy and anthracycline medicines tries to remove any visible cancer. This rigorous therapy in the hospital normally takes about seven days. In case the leukemia has reached the spinal cord or brain, chemotherapy is directly applied to the cerebrospinal fluid. During this process and for a while afterwards, the patient's regular bone marrow cells get destroyed along with the leukemic ones. Consequently, the blood cell count drops drastically and must to be treated with transfusions of blood products, antibiotics and other medicines. If the process of induction works, there will be no leukemic cells in the blood afterward, and the number of bone marrow blast cells will be lower than 5 percent within a few days. In approximately two weeks, regular blood cells will start to get created by normal cells of the bone marrow.

  The entire chemotherapy procedure is repeated if remission is not induced within a week of treatment. Normally, this procedure of treatment is successful in most patients, although the factors governing the success maybe largely dependant on certain extrapolative reasons. Younger patients respond better to such treatment than older patients because younger patients generally tend to have encouraging cytogenetic test reports (i.e., the testing of whole chromosomes from the nucleus of the cell to detect changes in number or structure). They are also less likely to have an already-existing ailment of the blood and will be able to better withstand any exhaustive therapy.

Consolidation or Post-Remission Therapy

• Even if remission induction is successful, the treatment procedure does not wipe out all leukemia cells altogether. Usually a tiny number remains, which tend to return within a few months unless the patient undergoes the second part of the treatment of consolidation or post-remission therapy. To avoid a relapse, consolidation therapy attempts to completely destroy any persisting leukemia cells through chemotherapy of cytarabine (a chemotherapy agent) in many courses, at high doses, generally over a period of five days and sometimes repeated. Younger patients, again, stand a better chance at gaining from this mode of treatment than older patients.

Stem Cell Transplant

• For patients with relapsed myeloid leukemia, the only established promising healing, after a high dose of chemotherapy, is stem cell transplant--either an allogeneic (donor stem cell transplant) or an autologous (the patient's own stem cells) transplant--to reestablish production of blood cells. A lot of factors govern the doctors' recommendation for the kind of post-remission therapy best suited to the patient. For instance, if more than one course of chemotherapy was required to induce remission, then the doctor might suggest a more exhaustive program involving a stem cell transplant, which also becomes more plausible if the patient has an available sibling or donor with a matching tissue type. Other factors, such as the patient's age, wishes, any chromosomal change, also must be taken into account as transplanting stem cells involves very rigorous treatment procedures with grave hazards of multiple complexities.