What is AML?
Pediatric AML, or Acute Myeloid Leukemia, is a group of aggressive blood cancers. It begins in the bone marrow, where abnormal myeloid cells grow rapidly and interfere with the production of normal blood cells.
Treatment can be extremely intensive. Chemotherapy attacks leukemia cells but can also damage healthy blood-forming cells, leaving children vulnerable to serious infections and other complications. Many children with high-risk AML also require a stem cell transplant.
The challenge is to develop treatments that attack the leukemia more precisely while sparing healthy cells.
This is why more precise treatments are so important. Researchers are identifying biological features unique to different forms of pediatric AML and developing therapies designed to attack those vulnerabilities while reducing harm to healthy cells.
To learn more about Pediatric AML or about other forms of Cancer click on these hyperlinks.
Why Stem Cell Transplants Can Be So Difficult
For some children with high-risk AML, a stem cell transplant offers the best chance of long-term remission. But transplantation can bring serious complications, including graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), in which donor immune cells attack the patient's healthy tissues.
These risks illustrate why researchers continue searching for treatments that can eliminate leukemia more precisely and with fewer long-term consequences for children.
A Successful Stem Cell Transplant Begins With a Donor Match
A blood cancer diagnosis marks the start of a race against time. For some children with high-risk AML, a stem cell transplant may offer the best chance for long-term remission. When a transplant is needed, finding a suitable donor can become critically important. For a child who needs a transplant, a donor can be lifesaving, but not every child is able to find a suitable match in the registry. For families whose child needs a transplant, learning that no suitable donor can be found can be devastating. That is why expanding the donor registry is so important. This is at the heart of the missions of DKMS and NMDP (formerly Be The Match)—helping patients find the matching donors they need.
Joining the registry is as simple as completing a cheek swab. If you are identified as a potential match, the registry will guide you through the donation process and cover donation-related costs.
Pictured here is Cody, Ella’s stem cell donor.
FAMILIES POWERING PEDIATRIC AML RESEARCH
