How quickly does AML progress? AML is a rapidly progressive disease. So there are, generally speaking, acute leukemias and chronic leukemias. So the acute leukemias are much more aggressive. Chronic leukemias are slower growing. And in the case of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, sometimes we can just observe that without any therapy. So acute myeloid leukemia is fast growing and generally needs treatment relatively promptly. Once it's diagnosed, it can progress very fast, within days and weeks and months. However, the initial event that makes the very first cell malignant can happen years earlier. This is from chemical exposure, especially benzene, and of course from nuclear accidents or from Hiroshima, Nagasaki. People have plotted the time from these events to the occurrence of leukemia. So I would say the minimal time period would be one year, and it can be maybe up to eight or 10 years. The upper limit is not so clear. But it takes at least one year for this one single cell to grow up into an acute leukemia.
HealthTree • June 21, 2024
