Survival Rates

Poor prognostic factors by cell type for leukemia include:

Acute myelogenous leukemia

  • Age: patients over age 60
  • WBC > 30,000 per microliter
  • Serum LDH over 400 IU
  • Slow response to therapy
  • Systemic infection at time of diagnosis
  • Central nervous system involvement
  • Myeloblastic leukemia other than with cytogenetic abnormality in t(8;121)
  • Myelomonocytic leukemia with abnormal marrow eosinophils

Acute lymphocytic leukemia

  • Age: younger than 3 or older than 7
  • Gender: males have worse prognosis
  • WBC greater than 50,000 per microliter in children or 30,000 per microliter in adults
  • Adult form of lymphocytic leukemia
  • Burkitt type cell leukemia
  • Any lymphocytic leukemia with immunologic subtype of B cell,
  • T cell or null cell
  • Hepatosplenomegaly, lymphadenopathy, mediastinal mass, central nervous system involvement
  • Presence of Philadelphia chromosome abnormality

Response rates for induction therapy

Leukemia Response Rate
AML 65%
ALL 60 - 80%

Myelofibrosis

Median survival is about 5 years.

Myelodysplastic Syndromes (median survival)

  • Refractory anemia 2-5 years
  • Refractory anemia with sideroblasts insufficient data
  • Refractory anemia with excess blasts 6-9 months
  • Refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation < 6 months
  • Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia 14-18 months

Essential Thrombocythemia

Median survival is 10-15 years if complications are controlled.