Chapter 7: Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) according to the current standard of practice and discusses some of recent changes in the field of AML. Many phenotypic defects of AML can be mapped to specific molecular abnormalities. It is now recognized that not only genetic but also epigenetic alterations are similarly important in this process. The expectation is that the understanding of such altera- tions will allow implementation of genotype-specific therapies and patients will be entered into different treatment protocols based of their individual genetic profiles.