Although treatment for AML depends on the exact subtype and the patient's age, clinical condition, and other factors, it generally involves two phases. The first is known as induction therapy, in which the patient is often given a chemotherapeutic drug to achieve complete remission. Complete remission is revised occasionally, but it can be defined as normal hematopoiesis after the induction therapy.
Patients should be evaluated after about two weeks of induction therapy by examination of bone marrow aspirate and biopsy. If these do not indicate that the patient is in remission, then they typically would receive another round of induction therapy.
Those patients who do show they are in complete remission are often offered consolidation therapy to treat any residual disease that has not been detected. Options for such treatment include chemotherapy and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants.
