What is AML? So to think about acute myeloid leukemia, we really need to think about how normal blood cells are produced. And normally what happens is we have a neat and orderly program in our bone marrow to make all of the different types of blood cells. So there are white cells that fight infection and red blood cells that carry oxygen through the body and platelets that help blood clot. So what happens under normal circumstances is that there's a very early type of blood cell called a blast. And that blast should mature into a good infection fighting cell called a neutrophil. So what happens in acute myeloid leukemia is that that blast gets stuck at this very immature stage and then loses the ability to mature. And then soon it's just growing out of control, filling up the bone marrow and stopping the production of normal blood cells.
HealthTree • June 21, 2024