The Importance of Patient Education and Supportive Care in AML with Dr. Zahra

Dr. Zahra, AML expert from Miami Cancer Institute, discusses the importance of patient education and supportive care for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. She emphasizes the need for personalized therapy based on molecular mutations and prognosis, as well as the importance of specialized centers that can provide 24-hour care and transfusion support. Dr. Zahra also highlights the significance of clinical trials in providing newer and potentially better therapies for AML patients.

Video Transcript 

Educating the Patient: Understanding Your Unique AML

In acute myeloid leukemia, I think one of the most important aspects of the disease is actually educating the patient. We do a lot in our clinic in terms of teaching the patient about their leukemia, different mutations, and the cytogenetic molecular changes they have.

There's so much about AML that we're learning. I tell my patients a lot that it's a very heterogeneous disease. You can have 200 people with AML in the room, and everybody has a different disease. We really focus on trying to educate patients on their molecular mutations and their prognosis and really try to strategize with our patients to provide the appropriate treatment.

Supportive Care: Preventing Complications and Optimizing Outcomes

I believe that supportive care for an AML patient is extremely important. I make sure that the patient has the supportive care that they need after intensive therapy. We work to prevent infections, treat them appropriately, and provide 24-hour care in terms of transfusion support, infection control, and management to prevent catastrophic outcomes that can happen when somebody's getting intensive therapy.

Clinical trials are extremely important. Having the opportunity to be on a clinical trial and receiving a newer therapy that could potentially be better is something that we greatly support. Providing the appropriate treatment for the patient is extremely important, but we also want to ensure they have a successful outcome.

A specialized center that focuses on acute leukemia is extremely important so that the patients are being cared for with that higher level of care. I can't stress it enough for our patients – really focus on appropriate transfusion support and monitoring for neutropenic fever, which can be catastrophic if it occurs. Oftentimes patients don't realize that just having chills is enough to be classified as neutropenic fever, and they're not aware of the signs and the symptoms to be monitored for. If I were to have my family treated somewhere, I would recommend a specialized center that is equipped to have the supportive care that an acute leukemia patient needs.

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