Who is the best person to treat my AML? The best person to treat acute myeloid leukemia is really a subspecialist, typically someone who practices at either an academic medical center or a university-based center that has access to a lot of clinical trials and research studies. I always recommend a subspecialist overseeing the diagnosis and management of acute myeloid leukemia. There are many resources available to patients if they are diagnosed, let's say, in a rural area or the community. I would urge everyone to either ask their oncologist or look at other portals in their area to help them locate the best subspecialty practice center that has experienced taking care of acute myeloid leukemia. I think it's really important to be under the care of a leukemia specialist because there's so many moving parts. So as we've mentioned, even the diagnostic criteria have changed extensively in the last two years. When you add that to the many drug approvals in the last 10 years, you want to make sure that you're hearing the full landscape of diagnosis, treatment, and management options. Seeing a hematologist oncologist and in some cases, like at an academic center, a malignant hematologist is where a patient will ultimately end up in order to get treatment planned. Leading up to that, it can start in an ER, it can start with just routine blood work with a primary care provider, but ultimately the patient needs to be seen by a trained hematologist oncologist. And then any treatment decisions after that, whether that involves a transplant or not, a hematologist that performs transplants or what we would call a transplanter would get involved as well.
HealthTree • June 21, 2024
