BETA - What are the different types of acute myeloid leukemia?

What are the different types of AML? There are really two important subtypes of AML. One is acute promyelocytic leukemia, APL, which is a subtype of AML, but really its own kind of distinct cancer. And this is determined by a genetic test where these patients have a specific chromosomal translocation that leads to this type of leukemia called APL. APL is very rare, and the important thing about APL is that it is highly curable, very curable with conventional chemotherapy on the order of even 95 plus percent of people who are diagnosed with APL can be cured with treatments that aren't even conventional chemotherapy. These are oral vitamin A agents as well as arsenic trioxide. These are traditional chemotherapy agents, and they are highly curative in patients with that rare subtype. The other types of AML are really defined genomically, and that is based on mutations and chromosomal abnormalities that we detect at diagnosis that puts patients into different buckets of subtypes of AML. This is an interesting, interesting evolution that we've gone through. Back in 1976, a group of pathologists from the U.S., from Britain, and from France got together and formed the FAB classification system, and this was based solely upon how the cells looked under the microscope. So we would say this is myeloblastic leukemia with differentiation. This was acute promyelocytic leukemia, monocytic leukemia, but all based on how the cells looked. And then around 2008, the World Health Organization came up with a new classification system based upon the genetic abnormalities that occur. So now patients who have certain chromosome abnormalities or even now gene mutations in a newer version of this classification system are considered to have different types of leukemia. So the disease is now named upon the chromosomal and genetic abnormalities that the disease has as opposed to how it looks under the microscope. And this is really a more accurate way to prognosticate, and it can be important for deciding what the best therapy is for patients as well.