Molecular Markers in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

Acute myeloid leukemia is a malignant disease of the hematopetic system. It often leads to a massive proliferation of precoursors of myelopoiesis in the bone marrow and blood. Based on the morphology of the immature blood cells and their differentiation AMLs are stratificated into eight sub-goups using the French-American-British classification (FAB). Despite classification, generating a prognosis for the patient is often difficult, which in turn makes the selection of the appropriate treatment more difficult. Prognosis is mainly based upon age, white-cell count and on cytogenetics of patients. The cytogenetic classification into the risk groups favorable, intermediate and unfavorable determines the intensity of therapy. In the intermediate group most patients have a normal karyotype, but their progress of disease is very variable. For this reason it is intended to search for novel prognostic, molecular markers which give a more accurate prediction of the progression of disease.