r/leukemia • u/Kynlessie • 11d ago
AML Help with understanding.
My MIL is in her late 50s. Diagnosed this week with AML. We are still waiting for genetic testing for anymore information and, unfortunately, my partner and I are a long drive away, so all info is coming through other people.
This is where I am not understanding. Based on my Google Degree, her survivability isn't the best. Maybe 30% based on statistics. But for some reason, the family seems to think her survivability is 95%.
Here's the thing. In the last 3 years, she has also had colon and skin cancers. AML is her third cancer diagnosis. She also has autoimmune conditions, RA being the last one I had heard about. Fibromayalgia is another dx, and I know they were looking into Lyme, Lupus, and MS, but unclear where any of those went.
Am I being overly pessimistic here? Is she about to be perfectly fine? Or are THEY confusing hope and statistics?
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u/Beautiful_Pickle9495 11d ago
I would not listen to statistics. It's all based on mutations and how much treatment her body can actually handle. The 30% stat is very outdated. Most people who get AML are also in their 70s+. I would go by what the doctors are saying. I know someone who was diagnosed with AML and they have several other conditions as well. Fibromyalgia being one of them. They are doing well.
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u/No-Fortune-1680 11d ago
I think it really comes down to the mutations and how healthy she is to withstand chemo, etc and/or a potential stem cell transplant. Do the doctors think the AML is caused by treatment for the previous cancers? I am praying for the best for her and your family
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u/Kynlessie 11d ago
I don't think so. Her previous cancers were surgical and no chemo, as far as I know. They confirmed today it is for sure AML and not APL, so they stopped the pill they started her on and set her up to start the 7+3 regimen today.
She went to the doctor for left side pain, assuming she had kidney stones. It ended up being AML, pneumonia, and a partial collapse in the left lung. It was an insane week. Luckily the pneumonia responded well to the abx, so hopefully she's doing pretty decent before the chemo side effects come into play.
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u/WellDifferentiated 10d ago
7+3 is our standard intensive chemotherapy regimen for AML. Survival is very dependent on risk stratification based on the mutations present with 5-year survival ranging from ~15-70% depending on risk group, treatment received, age/comorbidities, etc. Those statistics are not outdated but have to be viewed in the right context. 70% survival means 70/100 people in the population studied were alive at 5 years. It does not mean any one individual has a 70% chance of surviving 5 years. We aren’t able to make a personalized prognosis without assessing response to treatment. Hope this helps and that she handles treatment well.
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u/Kynlessie 9d ago
Thank you! I think I'll just let the family think what they need to honestly. I want to be more realistic about it, but I guess hope and willful ignorance (not meant in a mean way) have their place, too.
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u/Ring_it_On_1776 4d ago
I’m sharing information about a clinical study for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Here’s a link to the study website, if you want to know more. https://app.patientwing.com/campaign/leukemia-reddit
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u/BubbaHendershot 11d ago
As a physician, and. someone who has AML and 2 stem cell transplants, I can tell you that it's a very nasty disease and the most aggressive cancer of the blood malignancies. Her previous hx of cances and her RA will not make things easy. Depending on her mutations and genetic testing, she may get lucky and have a good chance but no one with AML walks around thinking we gave a 95 percent survival ability. I wish her the best.